Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.3% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $316.95 and last traded at $315.30. Approximately 885,803 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 6,868,554 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.74.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $587.92 billion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $298.56 and a 200-day moving average of $280.71.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 12.6% during the third quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,298 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.5% in the third quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 27,274 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,499,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $224,000. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $714,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.