Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.9% Higher – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $315.14 and last traded at $314.48. 1,344,659 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 6,967,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.82.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie increased their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point started coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $586.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $290.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.