Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 26,270,000 shares, a decline of 16.5% from the March 31st total of 31,470,000 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 7,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,400 shares of company stock worth $52,711,258 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $5.21 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $347.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,112,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,225,064. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $337.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $324.57. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $645.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $362.38.

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.