Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.4% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price shot up 0.4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $314.51 and last traded at $314.39. 988,375 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 4,239,184 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.04.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $329.70.

Visa Stock Down 0.0 %

The company has a market cap of $582.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.16, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $310.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $286.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current 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, topping 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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 297.8% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 97,541 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,598,000 after purchasing an additional 73,019 shares in the last quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 55.0% in the second quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $319,000 after buying an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 142.9% in the second quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 2,346 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. DDFG Inc lifted its position in Visa by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. DDFG Inc now owns 895 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $235,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 11,100 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,913,000 after acquiring an additional 2,556 shares during 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.