Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 194,818 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 1,288 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $68,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Hurley Capital LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $56,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Macquarie dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $375.52.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,108 shares of company stock valued at $36,771,200. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

Visa stock traded up $2.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $356.93. 3,915,274 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,404,370. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $254.51 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $658.60 billion, a PE ratio of 35.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $356.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $345.00.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

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.