Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.2% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was up 0.2% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $317.66 and last traded at $316.04. Approximately 3,963,126 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average daily volume of 6,913,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.31.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on V shares. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $588.74 billion, a PE ratio of 32.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $307.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $284.86.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after acquiring an additional 345,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.