Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 1.6% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 1.6% on Monday . The company traded as high as $325.18 and last traded at $323.9920. 9,582,546 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 23% from the average session volume of 7,778,723 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.79.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price objective on Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.25.

Visa Trading Up 1.6%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $588.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day moving average of $310.67 and a 200 day moving average of $326.72.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.34%.

Visa announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Triad Investment Management lifted its position in Visa by 12.7% during the first quarter. Triad Investment Management now owns 14,321 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,328,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the period. Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $31,120,000. HORAN Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. HORAN Wealth LLC now owns 11,977 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,703,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 226,974 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $68,601,000 after purchasing an additional 18,859 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC now owns 5,379 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,626,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.