Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $235.90 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 746,436 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,898 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.9% of Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Visa were worth $235,904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on V. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This 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 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

V opened at $348.26 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $648.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $320.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.12. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.