Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.4% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 0.4% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $314.04 and last traded at $312.94. 1,233,059 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 4,451,945 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.67.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.70.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $582.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $310.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $286.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its stake in Visa by 5,034.0% in the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.