Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.9% - Time to Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $339.00 and last traded at $338.33. 972,752 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 7,241,224 shares. The stock had previously closed at $335.18.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Seven equities 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $611.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $340.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $320.44.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew 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 stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is 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.