Visa Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:V)

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors bought 33,249 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 44% compared to the typical daily volume of 23,047 call options.

Visa Stock Up 0.6%

V stock opened at $347.83 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.25. Visa has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $633.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.07, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 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. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday. Macquarie dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Visa by 14.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Visa by 110.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP raised its stake in Visa by 286.4% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,526,026 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $862,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $565,684,000. 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.