Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.3% – Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $377.17 and last traded at $375.1780. 6,174,865 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 20% from the average daily volume of 7,695,124 shares. The stock had previously closed at $370.45.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $430.00 price objective (up from $394.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $445.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $420.00 price objective on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $416.62.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market cap of $669.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $365.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $335.26.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.78% and a return on equity of 67.68%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 20,970 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.25, for a total transaction of $7,135,042.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,162,953.50. This represents a 58.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,028 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.35, for a total value of $773,377.80. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,018,365.40. This represents a 9.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 106,404 shares of company stock valued at $38,228,528. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. XXEC Inc. increased its position in Visa by 153,118.8% during the second quarter. XXEC Inc. now owns 186,260,448 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $63,904,097,000 after acquiring an additional 186,138,883 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after purchasing an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its position in Visa by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 21,516,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,547,169,000 after purchasing an additional 244,085 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $5,877,738,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,720,068 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,393,398,000 after purchasing an additional 1,808,496 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that operates one of the world’s largest electronic payment networks. The company connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments, enabling transactions through credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payment products. Visa generally does not issue cards, extend credit or set consumer interest rates; instead, it provides the network, technology and services that support payments.

Visa’s products and services include Visa-branded cards, digital payment solutions, tokenization, fraud prevention, risk management, data analytics and payment acceptance tools.