Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 2.3% - Here's What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s share price was up 2.3% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $341.25 and last traded at $339.09. Approximately 1,352,925 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 7,194,423 shares. The stock had previously closed at $331.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

The company has a market cap of $623.53 billion, a PE ratio of 33.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $339.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $321.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 stock in a transaction dated 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. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 22,658 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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