Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.2% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $334.80 and last traded at $332.2920. Approximately 8,023,961 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 1% from the average daily volume of 7,909,464 shares. The stock had previously closed at $328.48.

Key Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa launched Visa Destinations, a new travel platform live in 10 major markets, aimed at engaging cardholders earlier in the travel journey and supporting more high-margin cross-border spending over time. Visa Explores Travel Planning Space With Visa Destinations
• Positive Sentiment: Visa and Mintoak partnered to expand merchant SaaS capabilities across Asia Pacific, which could strengthen Visa’s value-added services business and improve long-term monetization beyond transaction processing. Visa (V), Mintoak Partner to Expand Merchant SaaS Offerings Across Asia Pacific
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is also expanding Visa Cloud Connect with Thredd across Asia Pacific, a move that should help fintechs and digital banks issue cards faster and reinforce Visa’s role in cloud-based payments infrastructure. Can Visa and Thredd Drive Faster Issuing Across the Asia Pacific?

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $389.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 target price for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.78.

Visa Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $322.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $324.21. The company has a market capitalization of $604.42 billion, a PE ratio of 29.42, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.34%.

Visa announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,284.36. This trade represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Visa by 50.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,834,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 1,133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Visa by 13.8% during the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 18,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,521,000 after buying an additional 2,230 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.