Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 544,783 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 89,600 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.8% of Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Visa were worth $193,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 82.0% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.7%

V opened at $340.93 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $344.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $348.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $624.86 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $287.19 and a twelve month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.20%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Macquarie cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

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.