William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. $V

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 13,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $4,700,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clayton Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 446.2% in the fourth quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Visa by 102.7% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 200.0% during the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dorato Capital Management acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $829,471.98. This represents a 19.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $327.17 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $313.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $325.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $586.87 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.78.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore set a $350.00 target price on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Daiwa Securities Group raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $386.70.

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.