Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $351.90 and last traded at $351.26, with a volume of 6059091 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $348.02.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $322.53 and a 200 day moving average of $297.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

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