Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $313.66 and last traded at $312.85, with a volume of 30245 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $309.92.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $289.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $277.34. The stock has a market cap of $578.89 billion, a PE ratio of 32.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Unionview LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co grew its position in Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.