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

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $339.00 and last traded at $338.33. 972,752 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 7,241,224 shares. The stock had previously closed at $335.18.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $342.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $319.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $626.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC raised its position in Visa by 101.5% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,368,000 after purchasing an additional 22,658 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.