Visa (NYSE:V) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on V. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of V opened at $327.98 on Wednesday. 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 one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $609.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.06, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $337.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $310.18.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,783,000. Wealthedge Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $867,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC lifted its position in Visa by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 11,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,512,000 after acquiring an additional 2,415 shares during the period. Aegis Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $300,000. Finally, IronOak Wealth LLC. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,334,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.