South Dakota Investment Council Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

South Dakota Investment Council trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 125,793 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 8,803 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.7% of South Dakota Investment Council’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Visa were worth $32,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 545.5% in the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1,019.2% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.58.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $275.04 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $279.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $263.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month 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 $505.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 in the last 90 days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.