Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.6% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were up 0.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $348.95 and last traded at $347.22. Approximately 1,175,124 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,766,767 shares. The stock had previously closed at $345.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $648.77 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $320.41 and a 200 day moving average of $295.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.