Visa (NYSE:V) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.09 EPS

Visa (NYSE:V) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09, Zacks reports. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of V stock opened at $342.05 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $317.74 and a 200-day moving average of $292.96. The stock has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.27.

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.