Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at Mizuho

Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Mizuho currently has $425.00 price objective on the credit-card processor’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $359.00.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on V. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Macquarie decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Visa Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $370.44 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $345.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $335.70. The firm has a market cap of $683.52 billion, a PE ratio of 37.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $371.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 168,162 shares of company stock valued at $58,645,479. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.