Susquehanna Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price objective increased by stock analysts at Susquehanna from $395.00 to $410.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “positive” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. Susquehanna’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 17.72% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $348.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $357.15. The company has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $329.14 and a 200 day moving average of $302.34.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.