Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price rose 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $353.16 and last traded at $349.90. Approximately 5,197,137 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 20% from the average daily volume of 6,504,082 shares. The stock had previously closed at $345.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Saturday, September 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.96.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $641.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $343.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $346.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.