Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.8% – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price rose 0.8% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $319.18 and last traded at $318.77. Approximately 1,393,994 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 5,415,429 shares. The stock had previously closed at $316.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $312.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $287.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $590.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sky Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Sky Investment Group LLC now owns 7,259 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,294,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the period. Wealthquest Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Wealthquest Corp now owns 1,835 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,209 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 40,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,744,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Overbrook Management Corp grew its position in Visa by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 65,857 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,813,000 after purchasing an additional 5,012 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.