Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $360.27 and last traded at $358.66, with a volume of 1407529 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $350.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $659.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.73, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $331.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of V. Omnia Family Wealth LLC lifted its position in Visa by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 3,526 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $3,237,000. XY Planning Network Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $280,000. Yoffe Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $852,000. Finally, LifeWealth Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $398,000. 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.