Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.2% – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price shot up 1.2% on Friday. The stock traded as high as $427.46 and last traded at $425.5460. 4,639,101 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 7,496,826 shares. The stock had previously closed at $420.31.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

These are some of the V stories that stood out recently:

• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Wallet is rolling out support for existing Visa cards, alongside Mastercard and American Express. Users must approve transactions, and card details are concealed from AI agents and merchants. The integration could bring Visa into emerging AI-assisted shopping, although it is not exclusive to Visa. OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT Wallet
• Positive Sentiment: New partnerships broaden payment use cases: AviaGames players can receive eligible payouts directly to Visa cards, and a partnership with Octopus expands Visa QR-payment acceptance at merchants in Hong Kong. AviaGames payout collaboration Visa and Octopus expand QR payments
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment is favorable, with Bernstein maintaining an Outperform rating and recent reports citing constructive price targets. Visa also disclosed a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share, up from $0.67. Bernstein analyst outlook

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $420.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $466.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $403.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target (up from $420.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $443.35.

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $389.44 and a 200-day moving average of $346.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $759.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.80.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The credit-card processor reported $3.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $12.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.09 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 70.50% and a net margin of 51.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 15.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be given a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.30%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie Rottenberg sold 2,028 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.35, for a total transaction of $773,377.80. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,018,365.40. This represents a 9.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.22, for a total transaction of $2,445,292.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,315,722.28. This represents a 27.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 32,663 shares of company stock valued at $12,634,720 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 606,500 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $217,934,000 after buying an additional 5,568 shares in the last quarter. CFC Planning Co LLC raised its stake in Visa by 13.7% during the third quarter. CFC Planning Co LLC now owns 13,305 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,781,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607 shares in the last quarter. Vega Investment Solutions acquired a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth about $829,000. Brooklands Fund Management Ltd acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $5,291,000. Finally, XXEC Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 153,118.8% in the second quarter. XXEC Inc. now owns 186,260,448 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $63,904,097,000 after acquiring an additional 186,138,883 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc. operates a global payments network that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. Its network supports the authorization, clearing and settlement of electronic payments, including transactions made in person and online. The company’s services include payment processing, fraud prevention, identity and risk management, and money-transfer solutions such as Visa Direct. Visa-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards are issued by participating financial institutions; Visa generally provides the network and related services rather than issuing cards or extending credit directly to consumers.