Wedbush Increases Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $300.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price target raised by Wedbush from $280.00 to $300.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a buy rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic reissued a neutral rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $302.58.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $275.04 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $279.44 and a 200-day moving average of $263.97. The company has a market capitalization of $505.11 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. 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 has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.72%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 545.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.