Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Jumps 3.8% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 3.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $436.76 and last traded at $436.2120. 9,671,524 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 7,487,305 shares. The stock had previously closed at $420.42.

Visa News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Verifone has deployed Visa’s Featurespace fraud-screening platform across its payment gateways. Its real-time, adaptive risk assessments are designed to help merchants prevent fraud and chargebacks while avoiding declined legitimate transactions. The rollout is evidence of adoption for Visa’s security services, although no financial terms were disclosed. Read article: Verifone Turns to Visa’s Featurespace to Combat Fraud
• Positive Sentiment: Visa raised its quarterly dividend by more than 16%, from $0.67 to $0.78 per share. The increase accompanies double-digit year-over-year revenue growth and a recent quarterly earnings beat, reinforcing the picture of a growing business with capacity to return cash to shareholders. Read article: Will Earnings Beat Change Visa Stock’s Narrative
• Positive Sentiment: Bill Ackman cited Visa favorably, and Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target to $500 while retaining an Overweight rating, adding to the bullish analyst and investor commentary. Read article: Visa Stocks Rise With Higher Cantor Target
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 5,875 shares, reducing his reported stake by about 28%. The sale was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, which makes it less informative as a signal of his current view of Visa’s prospects. Read SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa is near a 52-week high after a strong advance, which may make the shares more sensitive to valuation concerns or profit-taking. Former CEO Joseph Saunders’ death was also reported, but the news indicates no operational or financial effect on the company. Read article: Former Visa CEO Joseph Saunders Dies

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $440.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $420.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Visa from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $396.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $443.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and thirty-five have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $440.03.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $778.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.38, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50 day moving average of $383.16 and a 200 day moving average of $343.20.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The credit-card processor reported $3.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.04. Visa had a return on equity of 70.50% and a net margin of 51.20%. The firm had revenue of $12.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.98 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 15.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 21.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie Rottenberg sold 1,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.34, for a total value of $687,690.78. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,778,929.36. This represents a 9.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.22, for a total transaction of $2,445,292.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,722.28. This represents a 27.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 27,395 shares of company stock worth $10,406,050 over the last ninety days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. John Boyer Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth $29,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth $33,000. Robinswood Financial LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Portfolio Resources Advisor Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic payments between consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments. Through its VisaNet network, the company authorizes, clears and settles transactions made with Visa-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards, while generally not issuing cards, extending credit or setting cardholder account terms.

Visa provides payment products and services for consumer, commercial and government payments, as well as digital commerce and money movement.