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Visa (V) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Visa (V - Free Report) closed at $139.80, marking a +0.01% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.56%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.76%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.38%.

Heading into today, shares of the global payments processor had lost 4.76% over the past month, outpacing the Business Services sector's loss of 7.74% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.76% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from V as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 7, 2019. On that day, V is projected to report earnings of $1.24 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 14.81%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.40 billion, up 11.02% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.32 per share and revenue of $22.84 billion. These totals would mark changes of +15.4% and +10.83%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for V. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% higher. V currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that V has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.26 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 20.13.

We can also see that V currently has a PEG ratio of 1.52. 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. Financial Transaction Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.54 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 55, putting it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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