Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 2.1%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares dropped 2.1% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $279.00 and last traded at $279.29. Approximately 1,139,309 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 7,100,818 shares. The stock had previously closed at $285.34.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $309.54.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $513.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $267.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $273.13.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.16 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 970.0% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during 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.