Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $353.96.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $349.46 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $329.81 and a 200-day moving average of $303.29. The company has a market capitalization of $649.21 billion, a PE ratio of 35.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $357.15.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.