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

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

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $315.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % 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 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.