Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.2% on Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price traded down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $312.01 and last traded at $313.91. 1,242,110 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 3,205,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.40.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.70.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $309.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $285.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $586.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 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 the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. jvl associates llc bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $281,000. First Citizens Financial Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 108.5% during the fourth quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp now owns 3,575 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 38,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,112,000 after buying an additional 5,055 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Visa by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,526 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,430,000 after buying an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.