Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Twenty-four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and seven have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $413.5769.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on V. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $412.00 price target (up from $395.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $387.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $445.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total transaction of $3,608,455.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,219,704.26. This trade represents a 40.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total value of $20,902,561.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 49,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,125,140.14. The trade was a 53.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 90,759 shares of company stock worth $32,375,779 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $5,877,738,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 867.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 8,213,610 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,880,595,000 after purchasing an additional 7,364,762 shares during the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 29,706.3% during the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,332,947 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,216,310,000 after purchasing an additional 7,308,345 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its position in shares of Visa by 12,497.1% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 3,378,039 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,184,712,000 after purchasing an additional 3,351,223 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,508,089 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,282,472,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,463 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $360.67 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Visa has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $373.97. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $345.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.28. The firm has a market cap of $643.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.67, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.98 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa will post 13.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.79%.

Visa declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.