Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 0.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price fell 0.3% on Wednesday after Macquarie lowered their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $380.00. Macquarie currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as low as $333.24 and last traded at $340.65. 2,550,319 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 6,782,693 shares. The stock had previously closed at $341.52.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Seamount Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Seamount Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,412 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 22,446 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,866,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Genus Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 215.4% in the 1st quarter. Genus Capital Management Inc. now owns 47,062 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,493,000 after purchasing an additional 87,832 shares in the last quarter. Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $233,000. Finally, CFC Planning Co LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. CFC Planning Co LLC now owns 5,381 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.1 %

The company has a market capitalization of $641.49 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $337.84 and a 200 day moving average of $323.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

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.