Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 1.6% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 1.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $336.06 and last traded at $334.7020. 5,826,946 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the average session volume of 6,418,044 shares. The stock had previously closed at $329.30.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.6%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $340.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $347.74. The company has a market cap of $609.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its stake in shares of Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth about $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc lifted its position in shares of Visa by 43.8% during the 2nd quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after buying an additional 13,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.