Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.1% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares traded up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $320.72 and last traded at $320.64. 812,783 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 6,961,504 shares. The stock had previously closed at $317.22.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $328.41.

Visa Stock Up 1.1 %

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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $305.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.51. The stock has a market cap of $597.33 billion, a PE ratio of 32.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew 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 buying an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.