Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.2% – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price shot up 0.2% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $290.82 and last traded at $290.43. 1,138,562 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 7,049,893 shares. The stock had previously closed at $289.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research report 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 research report on Wednesday. Finally, Compass Point began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $320.07.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $532.53 billion, a PE ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $280.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth about $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.