Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.3% Higher – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.3% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $309.83 and last traded at $309.23. Approximately 1,248,590 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 6,977,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $308.25.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.5 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $287.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $275.90. The company has a market capitalization of $564.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 16.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,328,000 after buying an additional 8,086 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,499,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,166 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $604,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Visa by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,563 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.