Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.6%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded down 0.6% on Monday . The company traded as low as $274.31 and last traded at $274.44. 1,171,135 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 5,637,893 shares. The stock had previously closed at $275.96.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $296.87.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $279.93 and its 200 day moving average is $262.49. The firm has a market cap of $498.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.22, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.18 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,930 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $904,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $216,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Richelieu Gestion SA bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,064,000 after purchasing an additional 476 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.