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

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $312.01 and last traded at $313.91. Approximately 1,242,110 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average daily volume of 3,205,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.40.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.70.

Visa Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $309.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.67. 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 firm has a market cap of $586.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its 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. The company 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 company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Unionview LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 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.