Kovack Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,525 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,438,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its position in Visa by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 25,615 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,669,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares during the last quarter. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $460,000. Boyd Watterson Asset Management LLC OH increased its position in Visa by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Boyd Watterson Asset Management LLC OH now owns 12,564 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,271,000 after buying an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 37,189 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $9,682,000 after buying an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 29,819 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,763,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,874 shares of company stock valued at $5,506,827 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V traded down $0.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $274.52. The stock had a trading volume of 6,840,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,528,673. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $504.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.68, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $279.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $264.33.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

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.