Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $322.28 and last traded at $322.29, with a volume of 562147 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $319.62.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $601.05 billion, a PE ratio of 33.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $313.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $289.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 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.