Traders Buy High Volume of Visa Put Options (NYSE:V)

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 58,730 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 68% compared to the average daily volume of 34,980 put options.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $277.48 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $273.71 and a 200-day moving average of $272.71. Visa has a 1 year low of $228.03 and a 1 year high of $293.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $505.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4,412.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after buying an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $511,321,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after buying an additional 1,715,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 26,951.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.