Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 0.4% - What's Next?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report)'s share price fell 0.4% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $343.25 and last traded at $344.91. 1,271,197 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 7,138,396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $346.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $345.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $316.58. The company has a market capitalization of $632.47 billion, a PE ratio of 34.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,585 shares of company stock worth $45,821,697. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

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.