Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC

Key Points

• Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Visa by 6.4%, selling 23,896 shares and retaining 347,320 shares valued at approximately $121.7 million.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59, with an annualized yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.
• Analysts are optimistic about Visa's performance, with Mizuho raising its rating to "outperform" and setting a price target of $425.

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 347,320 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 23,896 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $121,722,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 50.1% in the fourth 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 period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its position in Visa by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 9,487 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,998,000 after buying an additional 2,496 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 48,741 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $15,404,000 after buying an additional 1,197 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 58,858 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $18,601,000 after buying an additional 2,396 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.3%

V stock traded down $1.15 during trading on Monday, reaching $348.89. 8,019,698 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,490,094. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $267.67 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $347.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.39. The company has a market capitalization of $639.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on V shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

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 Visa 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 transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,127 shares of company stock worth $28,340,553 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Visa

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.