South Dakota Investment Council Has $37.10 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

South Dakota Investment Council increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 117,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.7% of South Dakota Investment Council’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Visa were worth $37,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Vicus Capital boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $653.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $330.49 and a 200 day moving average of $303.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.