Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 40 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,898,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $71,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value 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 have sold 19,874 shares of company stock valued at $5,506,827 over the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V traded down $3.23 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $268.61. The stock had a trading volume of 6,319,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,935,189. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $493.30 billion, a PE ratio of 30.17, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $279.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $264.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.