Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Short Interest Update

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the target of a large drop in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,270,000 shares, a drop of 17.4% from the July 31st total of 22,120,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 8,410,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $276.37 on Friday. Visa has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $505.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $265.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth about $1,212,000. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,330,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth $404,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 25,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,967,000 after purchasing an additional 7,236 shares during the period. Finally, Davidson Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on V shares. Macquarie reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 price objective (down previously from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $319.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $308.50.

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.