Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.7% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded up 0.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $312.52 and last traded at $310.53. 2,082,992 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 7,237,402 shares. The stock had previously closed at $308.27.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average is $343.47 and its 200-day moving average is $317.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $605.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. 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.