Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.5% – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares were up 0.5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $317.66 and last traded at $316.98. Approximately 616,279 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 6,900,271 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.31.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

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 company has a market capitalization of $588.74 billion, a PE ratio of 32.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $308.44 and its 200-day moving average is $285.08.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value 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 trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Unionview LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC grew its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co raised its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.