Kovack Advisors Inc. Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Kovack Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,696 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 486 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 82.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of V stock opened at $341.07 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $287.19 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $625.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $344.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $348.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.11%.

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.