Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.8% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price traded up 0.8% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $319.18 and last traded at $318.77. 1,393,994 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 5,415,429 shares. The stock had previously closed at $316.28.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $313.16 and a 200-day moving average of $288.06. The company has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 77,764 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,411,000 after buying an additional 3,306 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,857 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 155,918 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,924,000 after buying an additional 7,015 shares in the last quarter. Trust Investment Advisors increased its position in Visa by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 4,958 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its position in Visa by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 59,630 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,651,000 after buying an additional 3,249 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.