Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.2% - Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) dropped 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $353.42 and last traded at $354.77. Approximately 2,254,964 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average daily volume of 5,646,899 shares. The stock had previously closed at $355.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $659.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $326.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $300.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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 for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

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