Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares traded down 1.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $309.26 and last traded at $309.63. 1,206,378 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 6,932,028 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.01.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $295.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.46. The stock has a market cap of $580.27 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accel Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Visa by 52.3% during the second quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 1,372 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 471 shares during the period. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the second quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 1,780 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the period. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 53.7% during the second quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,211 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $318,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Visa by 8.9% during the second quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 4,202 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,103,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,269 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.