Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,496 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 698 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $363.33 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $333.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $305.34. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $364.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on V shares. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.