Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.4% – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price rose 0.4% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $317.54 and last traded at $317.19. Approximately 1,941,947 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 6,861,843 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $328.41.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $586.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $301.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast 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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unionview LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co increased its position in Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Menard Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.