Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.2% Following Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares were down 0.2% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $312.01 and last traded at $313.91. Approximately 1,242,110 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average daily volume of 3,205,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.40.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.70.

Visa Stock Performance

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 stock has a market cap of $586.64 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $309.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $285.67.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. 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 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. 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.