Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.4% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $314.04 and last traded at $312.94. Approximately 1,233,059 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 4,451,945 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Visa Stock Down 1.6 %

The stock has a market cap of $573.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $312.14 and a 200 day moving average of $286.85.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is 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.