Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.7% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.7% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $347.24 and last traded at $347.10. Approximately 880,428 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 6,682,225 shares. The stock had previously closed at $344.62.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $639.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $341.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $314.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 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.