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

Kovack Advisors Inc. cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,798 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 291 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,319,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Visa by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,046,000 after purchasing an additional 16,078 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,328,000 after purchasing an additional 8,086 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in Visa by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,928 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,096,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,850 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,865,000 after purchasing an additional 708 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $309.51 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $245.34 and a one year high of $312.44. The company has a market cap of $564.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.81, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $285.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $275.17.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

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.