Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.6% – Should You Sell?

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Trading Down 0.5 %

The company has a market capitalization of $557.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $282.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders 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 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 V. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 45,189.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Visa by 787.1% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after buying an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715,686 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.