Visa (NYSE:V) Director Sells $302,832.00 in Stock

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of V stock opened at $335.91 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $348.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $615.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its position in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.