Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.1% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded down 0.1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $334.49 and last traded at $342.47. 1,942,788 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 7,120,437 shares. The stock had previously closed at $342.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 1.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $644.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $344.68 and its 200 day moving average is $316.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.