Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 1.2% – Time to Sell?

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price dropped 1.2% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $334.82 and last traded at $336.74. Approximately 5,394,011 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average daily volume of 6,403,597 shares. The stock had previously closed at $340.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Trading Down 1.2%

The stock has a market cap of $617.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.98, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $344.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $348.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,518,533,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after buying an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 110.4% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,396,930,000 after buying an additional 2,075,289 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.