William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 1,362 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

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

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,522,000 after acquiring an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its holdings in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,834,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its position in Visa by 16.9% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 1,133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its position in Visa by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 18,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,521,000 after purchasing an additional 2,230 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,625,440. This trade represents a 9.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 49,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,125,140.14. The trade was a 53.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 90,759 shares of company stock worth $32,375,779. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Visa from $412.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $406.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $432.00 price objective (up from $412.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $413.58.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $371.09 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $662.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $293.89 and a 12-month high of $373.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $353.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $329.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

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.