Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.4% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was up 0.4% during trading on Thursday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $314.00 to $331.00. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $327.08 and last traded at $324.89. Approximately 1,234,812 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 5,356,201 shares. The stock had previously closed at $323.56.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on V. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $332.81.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 1.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $289.71. The company has a market capitalization of $611.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 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.