Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,330,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 434,800 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 5.6% of Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,053,534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $363.33 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $364.00. The company has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a PE ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $333.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $305.34.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.