Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 1.4%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price traded down 1.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $270.49 and last traded at $271.10. 1,436,882 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 5,856,003 shares. The stock had previously closed at $275.02.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush boosted their price target on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $279.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $263.97. The company has a market capitalization of $505.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.72%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. 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.