Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.5% - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Visa's share price increased by 1.5% during mid-day trading, reaching a last traded price of $348.39 with a market cap of $638.53 billion.
• The stock received a mix of analyst ratings, with Barclays maintaining an "overweight" rating and a price target increase to $408.00, while Erste Group Bank downgraded it from "buy" to "hold".
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59, translating to an annualized yield of 0.7%, and its earnings for the last quarter exceeded analysts’ expectations with a revenue increase of 14.3% year-over-year.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $350.01 and last traded at $348.39. Approximately 5,729,169 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 11% from the average daily volume of 6,446,411 shares. The stock had previously closed at $343.30.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $389.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.5%

The firm has a market cap of $638.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. The business's 50-day moving average is $343.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.6% during the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.

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