Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.3% – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $314.04 and last traded at $312.74. Approximately 5,160,734 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 2% from the average daily volume of 5,266,279 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $582.60 billion, a PE ratio of 32.14, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $311.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $286.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Andra AP fonden increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.1% during the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 38,841 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,195,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 24.9% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 15,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,003,000 after acquiring an additional 3,039 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 8.6% during the second quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 46,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,176,000 after acquiring an additional 3,692 shares during the period. Brasada Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Visa by 1.4% during the second quarter. Brasada Capital Management LP now owns 10,850 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,849,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,784 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,093,000 after purchasing an additional 792 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.