Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 1% – Here’s Why

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price was down 1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $352.28 and last traded at $351.73. Approximately 862,517 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 5,569,161 shares. The stock had previously closed at $355.23.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Down 1.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $649.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $327.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $301.05.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. 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 bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth 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. 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.