Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.6% – Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was down 0.6% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $305.24 and last traded at $305.52. Approximately 978,585 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 7,029,813 shares. The stock had previously closed at $307.40.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $282.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.20. The stock has a market cap of $557.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current 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. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 21.38%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $1,212,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 4.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Arjuna Capital grew its holdings in Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $731,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.