Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 708,360 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 33,695 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.8% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in Visa were worth $223,870,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $4.89 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $358.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,754,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,005,714. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $341.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $332.43. The firm has a market cap of $661.37 billion, a PE ratio of 36.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $369.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.71.

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.