Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,091 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 646 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.7% of Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Visa were worth $32,307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Visa by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $903,955,000 after purchasing an additional 999,167 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Visa by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $916,174,000 after purchasing an additional 871,439 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE V traded up $4.05 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $276.72. 3,435,600 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,850,486. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $277.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $266.06. The stock has a market cap of $506.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

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.