Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 1.5% Higher – Should You Buy?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price rose 1.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $371.80 and last traded at $371.09. Approximately 6,665,680 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 7,890,429 shares. The stock had previously closed at $365.73.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $427.00 price target (up from $410.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Truist Financial set a $406.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $412.00 target price (up from $395.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Visa from $412.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $413.58.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $662.18 billion, a PE ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $329.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 50.78% and a return on equity of 67.68%. The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.98 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Visa announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total value of $3,608,455.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,219,704.26. This trade represents a 40.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 90,759 shares of company stock worth $32,375,779 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of V. XXEC Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 153,118.8% during the second quarter. XXEC Inc. now owns 186,260,448 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $63,904,097,000 after purchasing an additional 186,138,883 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.