Baird Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. sold 17,211 shares of Visa Inc., reducing its stake by 1.5% to approximately 1,109,185 shares, valued at $388.7 million.
• CEO Ryan Mcinerney reported a significant sell-off, disposing of 8,630 shares, resulting in a 94.14% decrease in his ownership.
• Visa's stock is currently trading at $351.92 with a market cap of $645 billion and the company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share.

Baird Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,109,185 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 17,211 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned 0.06% of Visa worth $388,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Visa by 38,416.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $673,689,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Visa by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $2.06 on Friday, hitting $351.92. 3,670,969 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,856,767. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $268.23 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $348.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.36. The company has a market cap of $645.00 billion, a PE ratio of 34.37, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total value of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,772,810. This trade represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

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.