Kentucky Retirement Systems Trims Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 114,791 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,581 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.1% of Kentucky Retirement Systems’ portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Visa were worth $36,279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $454,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Vicus Capital lifted its position in Visa by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $348.27 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $329.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $302.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company 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.