Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.9% Higher – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded up 0.9% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $315.14 and last traded at $314.48. 1,344,659 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 6,967,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.82.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $290.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $277.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $586.53 billion, a PE ratio of 32.32, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction 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 $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.