Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded up 1.3% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $349.50 and last traded at $348.74. 942,424 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 6,672,318 shares. The stock had previously closed at $344.18.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $315.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.