Visa (NYSE:V) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $356.74 and last traded at $356.04, with a volume of 5819771 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $353.81.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $326.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $300.67. 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 $661.45 billion, a PE ratio of 35.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Sell-side 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. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.