Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.1% – Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares fell 0.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $322.85 and last traded at $323.17. 1,196,116 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 5,387,276 shares. The stock had previously closed at $323.63.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $332.81.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $602.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $313.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.