Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.5% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 0.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $317.66 and last traded at $316.98. 616,279 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 6,900,271 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.31.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $328.41.

Visa Price Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $306.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $284.23. The company has a market capitalization of $589.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. IMS Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 10,962 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,014,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 12.6% in the third quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,298 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.5% in the third quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 27,274 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,499,000 after buying an additional 655 shares during the period. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $224,000. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $714,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.