Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price was up 1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $410.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $358.25 and last traded at $357.22. Approximately 1,155,657 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 7,003,408 shares. The stock had previously closed at $353.54.

V has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total value of $5,259,207.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,377,671.52. This represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its stake in 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 boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in 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 last quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $659.58 billion, a PE ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $341.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $332.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

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.