Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Friday.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted 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 increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $315.49.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. 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 valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the fourth 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 period. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.