Visa (NYSE:V) Issues Earnings Results

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08, Zacks reports. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Visa Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of V traded up $5.21 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $347.66. 6,112,726 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,238,581. Visa has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $337.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $324.83. The firm has a market cap of $645.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,400 shares of company stock valued at $52,711,258 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Visa stock. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 68.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $3,733,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie dropped their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Company Profile

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.