Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 2.4% Higher - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Visa shares rose 2.4% in mid-day trading, with volume jumping to 13.0 million shares versus an average of about 8.0 million, suggesting stronger investor interest.
• Recent catalysts include Piper Sandler’s upgrade of Visa to strong-buy and the launch of Open USD, a stablecoin initiative backed by Visa and more than 140 partners, which reinforces its role in digital payments.
• Visa continues to show solid fundamentals, as it beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, announced a quarterly dividend, and authorized a $20 billion stock buyback program.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 2.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $353.36 and last traded at $351.3580. 13,010,459 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 62% from the average session volume of 8,047,479 shares. The stock had previously closed at $343.09.

Visa News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is gaining attention from the launch of Open USD, a new stablecoin initiative backed by Visa and more than 140 partners, including major names like Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Google and Coinbase. Investors may view this as evidence that Visa is staying central to the next phase of digital payments and cross-border money movement.
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Visa (V) from overweight to strong-buy, which can help support the stock by signaling stronger analyst confidence in the company’s outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: Visa said consumers are still spending on discretionary items by hunting for deals online, suggesting payment volumes may remain resilient despite inflation pressure.
• Positive Sentiment: Traders bought an unusually large number of call options on Visa, a sign of rising bullish sentiment and expectations for further upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also expanded its travel platform and added new smartphone-based payment tools for small businesses, both of which support its long-term growth story but are less likely to move the stock immediately.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 20,970 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan. The sale is not necessarily a bearish signal, but insider selling can still create some caution among investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $403.00 target price (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $415.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $365.00 target price on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $397.96.

Visa Stock Up 2.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $630.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a 50 day moving average of $324.40 and a 200-day moving average of $324.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 20,970 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.25, for a total value of $7,135,042.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,162,953.50. This represents a 58.02% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 63,064 shares of company stock worth $21,289,800. Insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invariant Investment Management bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its position in Visa by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,143,000 after purchasing an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ticino Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $1,837,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world's largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa's network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa's product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.

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