Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.7% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares shot up 0.7% on Monday . The company traded as high as $313.47 and last traded at $311.96. 1,247,397 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 6,936,597 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.92.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America lifted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price objective (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four 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 stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $586.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $290.89 and its 200-day moving average is $278.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’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 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 52.9% in the 1st quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 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.