Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 1.4% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $331.08 and last traded at $328.24. Approximately 8,890,015 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 39% from the average daily volume of 6,407,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $323.77.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $340.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $348.06. The company has a market cap of $597.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 21,870 shares of company stock worth $7,467,233 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.5% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Finally, NatWest Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 43.8% during the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,212,000 after purchasing an additional 13,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.