Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.3% Higher – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price rose 0.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $316.95 and last traded at $315.30. Approximately 885,803 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 6,868,554 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.74.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $586.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $299.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.06.

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 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 analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unionview LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co boosted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.