Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

Several other brokerages have also commented on V. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $339.10 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $629.96 billion, a PE ratio of 34.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $339.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $312.40. Visa has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its position in Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 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.