Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Position Boosted by Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,485,091 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 17,613 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.9% of Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned 0.08% of Visa worth $469,348,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank raised its stake in Visa by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC raised its stake in Visa by 101.5% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,368,000 after purchasing an additional 22,658 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $358.17.

Visa Stock Up 0.7 %

Visa stock traded up $2.39 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $337.56. The stock had a trading volume of 5,415,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,204,056. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $627.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $338.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $323.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Visa 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.