Ithaka Group LLC Sells 942 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Ithaka Group LLC reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 1.4%, retaining 68,035 shares, making Visa its 7th largest position with a value of $23.84 million.
• Visa's CEO, Ryan Mcinerney, sold 8,630 shares of the company, representing a 94.14% decrease in his position, while total insider sales over the last 90 days reached approximately $32.9 million.
• The company beat earnings expectations for the last quarter, reporting $2.98 EPS compared to analysts' estimates of $2.85, with revenue increasing by 14.3% year-over-year to $10.17 billion.

Ithaka Group LLC decreased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 68,035 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 942 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 4.9% of Ithaka Group LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Ithaka Group LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $23,844,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Visa by 14.9% during 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 worth $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,913 shares of company stock worth $32,902,432 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on V. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Visa Stock Up 0.7%

V traded up $2.25 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $339.68. The company had a trading volume of 5,943,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,305,647. The company has a market capitalization of $626.76 billion, a PE ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $256.31 and a one year high of $375.51. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $354.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.84. 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 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 business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.