Forsta AP Fonden Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Forsta AP Fonden increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 457,686 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,200 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.0% of Forsta AP Fonden’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Visa were worth $144,647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $368.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.27.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $342.05 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $292.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $637.19 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

About Visa

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.