Visa (NYSE:V) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $356.74 and last traded at $356.04, with a volume of 5819771 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $353.81.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho lifted 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. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued 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 price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Down 1.3 %

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 50-day simple moving average of $328.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $301.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $651.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.