Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Short Interest Down 13.3% in February

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 23,380,000 shares, a decline of 13.3% from the January 31st total of 26,980,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 6,040,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $343.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $638.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $335.63 and a 200-day moving average of $307.80.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.