Citigroup Cuts Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $319.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price reduced by Citigroup from $321.00 to $319.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on V. Macquarie restated an outperform rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $307.25.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $259.46 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $474.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.99, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $274.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa has a 52-week low of $227.78 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nadler Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $3,427,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 75,421 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,636,000 after buying an additional 795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cedrus LLC raised its stake in Visa by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Cedrus LLC now owns 2,010 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $523,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.