Visa’s (V) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Raymond James

Raymond James reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $393.00 price objective on the credit-card processor’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $374.00.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $342.05 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $317.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $293.12. The firm has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $351.25.

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 net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.