Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.4% – What’s Next?

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 0.4% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $317.54 and last traded at $317.19. 1,941,947 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 6,861,843 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.89.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Visa Trading Up 1.6 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $586.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $301.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $281.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $74,000. GYL Financial Synergies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 46,560 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,221,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares during the last quarter. Jacobsen Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Jacobsen Capital Management now owns 4,982 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,308,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 19,997 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,249,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vinland Capital Management Gestora de Recursos LTDA. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,987,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Visa

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.