Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 1.4% on Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares dropped 1.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $331.00 and last traded at $341.37. Approximately 2,958,340 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 7,141,436 shares. The stock had previously closed at $346.33.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 7.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50 day moving average of $345.02 and a 200 day moving average of $316.89. The firm has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.