Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Raised by Kozak & Associates Inc.

Kozak & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,794 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.3% of Kozak & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Kozak & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,195,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Iowa State Bank increased its position in Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Iowa State Bank now owns 18,772 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,933,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Capital Market Strategies LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $209,000. CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 64,287 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,317,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965 shares during the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its holdings in Visa by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 16,600 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,079,682 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,292,321,000 after buying an additional 14,778 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded down $1.92 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $312.99. The company had a trading volume of 3,497,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,318,811. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $583.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $309.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $285.76. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on V. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.