Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V – Get Free Report) shot up 0.6% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $309.43 and last traded at $309.29. 1,292,722 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 6,946,516 shares. The stock had previously closed at $307.39.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.
Visa Stock Up 0.9 %
The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $565.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $288.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $276.84.
Visa (NYSE:V – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Visa Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Visa
In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the second quarter worth about $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.