Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.6% – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price traded up 0.6% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $348.95 and last traded at $347.22. 1,175,124 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 5,766,767 shares. The stock had previously closed at $345.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company’s fifty day moving average is $319.07 and its 200 day moving average is $294.37. The firm has a market cap of $648.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.08, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. 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.