Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.3% - Still a Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was up 0.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $331.93 and last traded at $332.40. Approximately 1,430,360 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 6,828,401 shares. The stock had previously closed at $331.33.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 2.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $594.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $321.05.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank increased its position in Visa by 2.0% during the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,512,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 101.5% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,368,000 after buying an additional 22,658 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.