Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.5% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares shot up 0.5% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $311.29 and last traded at $311.14. 928,108 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 6,987,349 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.48.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.5 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $287.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $275.90. The firm has a market cap of $564.31 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa 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 value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.