Short Interest in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Declines By 19.9%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 22,900,000 shares, a decline of 19.9% from the June 15th total of 28,580,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 target price (down previously from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Piper Sandler began coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, May 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $322.00 target price for the company. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $304.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Nadler Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,427,000. Richelieu Gestion SA bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group increased its holdings in Visa by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,064,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.2 %

Visa stock traded up $3.19 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $265.74. The stock had a trading volume of 6,627,767 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,662,722. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $486.02 billion, a PE ratio of 29.69, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a 52 week low of $227.68 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $272.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.11.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Analysts forecast that Visa will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.