Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 2.5%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares rose 2.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $260.68 and last traded at $260.02. Approximately 1,756,935 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 6,876,522 shares. The stock had previously closed at $253.74.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush upped their target price on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.77.

Visa Trading Up 2.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $475.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $270.45 and a 200 day moving average of $274.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. 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.