BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Raises Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 541,877 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 40,217 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.0% of BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp's holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp's holdings in Visa were worth $171,255,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,557,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Capital & Planning LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 949 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $300,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. now owns 6,169 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,951,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC now owns 7,979 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,522,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sandy Cove Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 1,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $627,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on V. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $366.96 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $369.15. The firm has a market cap of $677.10 billion, a PE ratio of 36.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $330.68.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.51 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

Visa Company 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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