Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 96,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $25,098,000. Visa accounts for approximately 0.5% of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $2,717,000. Markel Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares during the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $1,496,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $296.87.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market cap of $498.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $280.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $262.19.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.18 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

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.