Short Interest in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Increases By 21.3%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 22,160,000 shares, an increase of 21.3% from the August 15th total of 18,270,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,620,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alaethes Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Jessup Wealth Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the first quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,410,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 2.5% in the first quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.3% during the first quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,793 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,012,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of V traded up $1.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $287.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,987,643 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,773,412. The company has a market cap of $523.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average of $268.29 and a 200 day moving average of $273.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $309.81.

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.