Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Down 1.4% After Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price dropped 1.4% on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $331.00 and last traded at $341.37. Approximately 2,958,340 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 7,141,436 shares. The stock had previously closed at $346.33.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $345.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $316.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Webster Bank N. A. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the first quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 38,972 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $13,658,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,805,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Sage Capital Advisors llc increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 2,499 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $876,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC now owns 5,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,847,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 42.9% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 6,468 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.