Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 1.6% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 1.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $336.06 and last traded at $334.7020. Approximately 5,826,946 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 9% from the average daily volume of 6,418,044 shares. The stock had previously closed at $329.30.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $609.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $340.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 7.5% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 43.8% during the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after buying an additional 13,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.