Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.4% – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price shot up 0.4% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $314.51 and last traded at $314.39. 988,375 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 4,239,184 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.85.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $311.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.45. The company has a market cap of $582.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cumberland Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Legacy Private Trust Co. raised its holdings in Visa by 49.6% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Private Trust Co. now owns 13,728 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,339,000 after buying an additional 4,550 shares during the last quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 2,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Sterneck Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $248,000. Finally, Innova Wealth Partners acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.