Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Down 6.5% Following Insider Selling

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) dropped 6.5% on Friday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $348.00 and last traded at $347.13. Approximately 4,310,322 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 6,988,399 shares. The stock had previously closed at $371.40.

Specifically, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Macquarie cut their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Visa Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $349.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $337.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $650.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business posted $2.51 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.72%.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth about $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 377.3% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. 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.