Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 1.2% – What’s Next?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares traded down 1.2% on Friday . The company traded as low as $345.52 and last traded at $345.82. 1,702,617 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 6,684,967 shares. The stock had previously closed at $349.86.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on V shares. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $343.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $315.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by 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.