Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.7% – Here’s Why

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were up 0.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $347.24 and last traded at $347.10. Approximately 880,428 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 6,682,225 shares. The stock had previously closed at $344.62.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their target price 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $343.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $314.66.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fire Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,034,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,000. Prostatis Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $941,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $871,000. Finally, M1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $277,000. 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.