Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were up 0.1% during trading on Thursday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $314.00 to $320.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $273.15 and last traded at $272.97. Approximately 722,605 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 5,733,616 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.69.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on V. KeyCorp raised their price target on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wedbush increased their target price on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt started coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $298.43.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,895,015,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,710,188 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Visa by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,015,639 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,648,985,000 after purchasing an additional 3,209,334 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $495.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $279.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $262.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

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.