Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.9% – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $354.43 and last traded at $354.69. Approximately 929,613 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 5,651,707 shares. The stock had previously closed at $351.49.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Down 0.5 %

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $325.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $298.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $657.15 billion, a PE ratio of 35.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.