Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 0.6% – Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded down 0.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $347.49 and last traded at $348.78. 976,112 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 5,609,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $350.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $322.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $653.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.44, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.