Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 1% – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price fell 1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $352.28 and last traded at $351.73. 862,517 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 5,569,161 shares. The stock had previously closed at $355.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.31.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $329.14 and a 200-day moving average of $302.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake 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 last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is 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.