Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 2.4% - Here's What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 2.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $327.72 and last traded at $327.70. Approximately 965,446 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 7,197,227 shares. The stock had previously closed at $320.10.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $613.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $340.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $321.34.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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