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

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price objective raised by equities research analysts at Macquarie from $300.00 to $335.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. Macquarie’s price target indicates a potential upside of 15.56% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $320.07.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $289.89 on Wednesday. Visa has a 12 month low of $232.99 and a 12 month high of $296.34. The stock has a market cap of $530.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.39, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day moving average is $280.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd 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. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Visa by 4,412.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after buying an additional 4,099,122 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after buying an additional 1,715,686 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.