Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were up 0.5% on Friday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $395.00 to $410.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $352.67 and last traded at $352.38. Approximately 1,481,639 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 5,587,317 shares. The stock had previously closed at $350.49.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho upped their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $329.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $302.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

About Visa

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.