Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.2% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 1.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $319.42 and last traded at $316.65. 8,703,146 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 8,511,305 shares. The stock had previously closed at $312.99.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie Infrastructure reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $391.43.

Visa Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $333.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.12. The company has a market cap of $579.17 billion, a PE ratio of 29.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.14 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.14%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Arwa LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,307,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL grew its position in Visa by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 185 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. OakTrust Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $273,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 107,723 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $37,779,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the period. Finally, Aristides Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 8,180 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,869,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.