Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 2.1% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares traded down 2.1% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $324.88 and last traded at $325.43. 1,845,868 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 7,252,339 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.43.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Up 2.8 %

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 $619.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $342.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $318.76.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its 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%. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of V. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. 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.