Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.6% on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.6% during trading on Tuesday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The stock traded as high as $274.47 and last traded at $274.10. Approximately 1,212,860 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 5,807,213 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.33.

The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on V shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC grew its position in Visa by 545.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $279.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $263.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $505.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96.

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.