Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price upped by Bank of America from $314.00 to $331.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 0.86% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on V. Citigroup lifted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $332.81.

Visa Stock Up 1.4 %

V opened at $328.18 on Wednesday. Visa has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $328.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $314.14 and its 200-day moving average is $289.71. The company has a market capitalization of $611.36 billion, a PE ratio of 33.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,198 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.