Visa (NYSE:V) Hits New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $309.00 and last traded at $306.54, with a volume of 898160 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $293.29.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $561.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $283.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $274.67.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.