Arizona State Retirement System Purchases 34,340 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 485,687 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,340 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Visa were worth $153,497,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Visa by 10.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $228,000. James J. Burns & Company LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. James J. Burns & Company LLC now owns 1,931 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $530,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yacktman Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $201,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $352.18 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $335.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $307.55. The company has a market cap of $654.27 billion, a PE ratio of 35.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. Company 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.