Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.2% - Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) shot up 1.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $362.40 and last traded at $360.78. 2,040,337 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 7,083,785 shares. The stock had previously closed at $356.46.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie lowered their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $328.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $671.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.72%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders grew its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 15,885 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,020,000 after acquiring an additional 677 shares during the period. Christensen King & Associates Investment Services Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $227,000. Greenfield Savings Bank grew its position in Visa by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank now owns 5,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,689,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its stake in Visa by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 17,376 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,491,000 after buying an additional 3,013 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

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.

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