New York Life Investment Management LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 255,667 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 9,941 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.8% of New York Life Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $80,801,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $363.33 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $333.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $305.34. 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 firm has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $364.00.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 quarter, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.