StockNews.com Upgrades Visa (NYSE:V) to “Buy”

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on V. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $349.82 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $649.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $343.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $314.66. Visa has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other 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.