William Blair Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

William Blair Investment Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,056 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,362 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Visa by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Visa by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,359,291,000 after buying an additional 398,459 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $416.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Clear Str raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $412.00 target price (up from $395.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have issued a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $413.58.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total value of $3,608,455.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,219,704.26. This represents a 40.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 49,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,125,140.14. This trade represents a 53.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 90,759 shares of company stock worth $32,375,779 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $371.09 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $353.73 and a 200 day moving average of $329.61. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $373.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $662.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is 22.79%.

Visa declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.