Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.8% - Here's What Happened

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 0.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $309.53 and last traded at $309.26. 1,391,473 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 5,465,913 shares. The stock had previously closed at $306.92.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $576.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $312.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $287.65.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $218,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 11.0% during the second quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 21,482 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,638,000 after acquiring an additional 2,128 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 81,315 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,595 shares during the period. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,041,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.4% in the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in 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.