Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.9% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares shot up 0.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $354.43 and last traded at $354.69. 929,613 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 5,651,707 shares. The stock had previously closed at $351.49.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Trading Up 1.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50-day moving average of $323.36 and a 200 day moving average of $297.90. The company has a market cap of $660.91 billion, a PE ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.4% during the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 8,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,301,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $155,822,000 after acquiring an additional 13,318 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after acquiring an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $357,000. Finally, Petredis Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the third quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,109,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.