Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 1.3% – Should You Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares dropped 1.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $307.35 and last traded at $308.55. Approximately 1,559,801 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 4,602,139 shares. The stock had previously closed at $312.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $312.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $286.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $573.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. 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 currently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC raised its position in Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its stake in Visa by 5,034.0% in the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.