Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 0.6% – Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price dropped 0.6% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $347.49 and last traded at $348.78. Approximately 976,112 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 5,609,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $350.72.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $653.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $322.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $297.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 26.9% in the third quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 2,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $603,000 after acquiring an additional 464 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its position in Visa by 22.4% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 52,998 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,572,000 after purchasing an additional 9,705 shares during the period. Wesbanco Bank Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 1.4% in the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 8,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,301,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its position in Visa by 2.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $155,822,000 after purchasing an additional 13,318 shares during the period. Finally, Iams Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 28.4% in the third quarter. Iams Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,475 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. 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.