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

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price shot up 0.4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $317.54 and last traded at $317.19. 1,941,947 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 6,861,843 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.89.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $300.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.46. The company has a market cap of $590.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.60, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa 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 value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 12.6% during the third quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,298 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS increased its holdings in Visa by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 27,274 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,499,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $224,000. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Visa by 5.5% during the third quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $714,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.