California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Position in Visa Inc. $V

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,592,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 103,813 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 0.8% of California Public Employees Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.20% of Visa worth $1,275,499,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its stake in shares of Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 5.9% during the second quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,783,000 after purchasing an additional 5,295 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth about $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $330.92 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $602.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.82. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $338.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

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.