Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price rose 0.8% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $326.00 to $371.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $321.15 and last traded at $320.93. Approximately 1,569,391 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 6,869,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.30.

V has been the subject of a number of other reports. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the second quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 2.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $577.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $301.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Visa Company Profile

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.