Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.5% – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares were up 0.5% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $350.75 and last traded at $349.08. Approximately 1,251,510 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 5,677,897 shares. The stock had previously closed at $347.48.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $320.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $295.12. The firm has a market cap of $648.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC raised its position in Visa by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 13,378 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,228,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the period. S&CO Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. S&CO Inc. now owns 15,835 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,004,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Davis R M Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 285,779 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $90,317,000 after purchasing an additional 1,749 shares during the period. Clare Market Investments LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $897,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners II LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $756,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.