Visa (V) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Visa (V) closed at $131.99, marking a +1.35% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.86%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.14%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.38%.
Heading into today, shares of the global payments processor had lost 7.89% over the past month, lagging the Business Services sector's loss of 7.29% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.55% in that time.
V will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 7, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.25, up 15.74% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $5.40 billion, up 11.01% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.33 per share and revenue of $22.83 billion, which would represent changes of +15.62% and +10.77%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for V. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.23% higher. V is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, V is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.44. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.28, which means V is trading at a premium to the group.
Investors should also note that V has a PEG ratio of 1.41 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. V's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.33 as of yesterday's close.
The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 33, putting it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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