Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.9% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares rose 0.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $320.59 and last traded at $319.97. Approximately 5,746,152 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 1% from the average daily volume of 5,703,089 shares. The stock had previously closed at $317.25.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $313.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.73. The stock has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity 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 sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,361 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $746,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. FCG Investment Co grew its stake in shares of Visa by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 2,063 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 2,293 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $725,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 8,651 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,734,000 after buying an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verde Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Visa by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Verde Capital Management now owns 3,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,008,000 after buying an additional 390 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.