Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Acquires 22,400 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 397,383 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,400 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.3% of Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Visa were worth $125,589,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 26,704 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,440,000 after purchasing an additional 988 shares in the last quarter. Delap Wealth Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 32.9% in the fourth quarter. Delap Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $327,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,218 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,494,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 577 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lutz Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $224,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $330.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.94. The stock has a market cap of $653.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. 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 (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.