Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 3.9% Higher – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 3.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $307.05 and last traded at $304.63. 3,409,205 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 51% from the average session volume of 7,025,813 shares. The stock had previously closed at $293.29.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price target (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $560.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.20.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.6% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Visa by 46.9% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,046,000 after acquiring an additional 16,078 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $5,681,000. Liberty Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $5,333,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 6.5% in the first quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 7,557 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,109,000 after acquiring an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.