Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 0.2% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded down 0.2% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $319.46 and last traded at $320.10. 621,909 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 6,943,806 shares. The stock had previously closed at $320.65.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Mizuho increased their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Compass Point started coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $328.41.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $597.72 billion, a PE ratio of 32.98, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $305.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $283.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arjuna Capital raised its stake in Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.