Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.3% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares rose 0.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $316.95 and last traded at $315.30. Approximately 885,803 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 6,868,554 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price objective (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.4 %

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $298.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $280.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $587.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unionview LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co increased its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC boosted its position in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.