Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 2.1%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price dropped 2.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $279.00 and last traded at $279.29. Approximately 1,139,309 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 7,100,818 shares. The stock had previously closed at $285.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $309.81.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $520.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $267.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brio Consultants LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $730,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after acquiring an additional 1,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,282,000 after acquiring an additional 4,774 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.