Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.6% on Strong Earnings

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 0.6% during trading on Tuesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock traded as high as $274.47 and last traded at $274.10. 1,212,860 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 5,807,213 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.33.

The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.72% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on V. UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Wedbush boosted their target price on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $505.11 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $279.44 and a 200 day moving average of $263.97.

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.