Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Down 1.4% on Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares dropped 1.4% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $331.00 and last traded at $341.37. Approximately 2,958,340 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 7,141,436 shares. The stock had previously closed at $346.33.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on V. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 7.6 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $345.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $316.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc increased its position in shares of Visa by 40.3% during the third quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,947 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,085,000 after buying an additional 1,133 shares during the period. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.3% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 6,221,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,710,465,000 after buying an additional 137,967 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.