Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $309.00 and last traded at $306.54, with a volume of 898160 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $293.29.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $560.18 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $281.92 and its 200-day moving average is $273.97.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is 21.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,046,000 after purchasing an additional 16,078 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $5,681,000. Liberty Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter worth about $5,333,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 6.5% during the first quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 7,557 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,109,000 after buying an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. 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.