Visa (NYSE:V) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $356.74 and last traded at $356.04, with a volume of 5819771 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $353.81.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Down 1.3 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $328.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $301.39. The firm has a market cap of $651.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.33, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.