Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 1.3% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $307.35 and last traded at $308.55. Approximately 1,559,801 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 4,602,139 shares. The stock had previously closed at $312.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $573.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $286.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 36.6% during the second quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 2,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $698,000 after buying an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd raised its stake in Visa by 4.4% during the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 118,302 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,051,000 after buying an additional 4,982 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 73,829 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,378,000 after purchasing an additional 2,519 shares in the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 36.8% in the 2nd quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 40,623 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,662,000 after acquiring an additional 10,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leelyn Smith LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 15,749 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,134,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.