Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 1.1% Higher – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price traded up 1.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $321.54 and last traded at $320.65. 2,684,103 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 6,969,813 shares. The stock had previously closed at $317.22.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna raised their price objective 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. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $306.04 and its 200-day moving average is $283.77. The stock has a market cap of $597.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in Visa by 79.0% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. 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.