Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) dropped 0.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $268.59 and last traded at $270.50. Approximately 1,151,844 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,870,935 shares. The stock had previously closed at $271.84.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. Wedbush boosted their target price on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

Visa Stock Down 0.7 %

The company’s fifty day moving average is $279.11 and its 200-day moving average is $264.97. The company has a market capitalization of $495.88 billion, a PE ratio of 30.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,874 shares of company stock worth $5,506,827. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $358,349,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position in Visa by 14,306.3% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489,856 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.