New York State Common Retirement Fund Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,177,132 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,918 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.9% of New York State Common Retirement Fund's holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.12% of Visa worth $688,061,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock traded down $2.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $348.27. 6,910,504 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,753,988. The company has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm's 50-day moving average is $328.47 and its 200 day moving average is $301.39.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.