California State Teachers Retirement System Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,636,890 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 72,139 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.0% of California State Teachers Retirement System's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.14% of Visa worth $833,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $358.17.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $335.50 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $338.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $322.98. The firm has a market cap of $623.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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