Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Short Interest Update

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 23,380,000 shares, a decline of 13.3% from the January 31st total of 26,980,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,040,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Berkeley Inc grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Berkeley Inc now owns 47,959 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,157,000 after buying an additional 10,936 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,428 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $767,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC ADV lifted its stake in Visa by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC ADV now owns 1,712 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $541,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the period. Audent Global Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Audent Global Asset Management LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,163,000 after purchasing an additional 1,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $628,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $352.18 on Thursday. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company’s 50-day moving average is $335.17 and its 200 day moving average is $307.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $654.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.