Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 2.6%, now owning 90,300 shares valued at approximately $32 million.
• Visa recently reported earnings of $2.98 per share, exceeding estimates and marking a 14.3% revenue increase year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59, which represents an annual yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 90,300 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,400 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 0.6% of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System's holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System's holdings in Visa were worth $32,061,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,522,000 after buying an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,733,000 after buying an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 42,120 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $14,761,000 after purchasing an additional 3,795 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 130.9% during the 1st quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC now owns 2,415 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $846,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, May Barnhard Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. May Barnhard Investments LLC now owns 1,489 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $343.63 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $343.77 and a 200 day moving average of $346.97. The company has a market cap of $629.79 billion, a PE ratio of 33.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $275.37 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $389.00.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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