Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.4%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 1.4% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $261.92 and last traded at $261.86. Approximately 1,401,865 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 6,988,130 shares. The stock had previously closed at $258.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.25.

Visa Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $268.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $274.19. The company has a market capitalization of $470.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 32,045 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,343,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 63,554 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,547,000 after acquiring an additional 1,664 shares during the period. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $16,278,000. Smith Salley & Associates raised its stake in Visa by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Smith Salley & Associates now owns 130,727 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,034,000 after purchasing an additional 4,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Callahan Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Callahan Advisors LLC now owns 8,794 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,290,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.