Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.1% Higher – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price traded up 0.1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $311.09 and last traded at $310.32. 1,299,275 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 6,928,973 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.90.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $579.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $295.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $279.46. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available at this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 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.