Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.4% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 0.4% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $314.51 and last traded at $314.39. 988,375 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 4,239,184 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.85.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $311.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $286.45. The firm has a market cap of $582.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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 company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company Profile

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.