Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 1.2% – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares dropped 1.2% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $345.52 and last traded at $345.82. Approximately 1,702,617 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 6,684,967 shares. The stock had previously closed at $349.86.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $343.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $315.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group increased its position in Visa by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,663,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Institutional investors 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.