Kovack Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund 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 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after acquiring an additional 374,489 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after acquiring an additional 85,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,542,434 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,734,835,000 after acquiring an additional 108,280 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,874 shares of company stock worth $5,506,827 over the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock traded down $0.64 during trading hours 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 current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $279.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $264.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $504.16 billion, a PE ratio of 30.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.58.

Visa 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.