Visa (NYSE:V) Downgraded by Erste Group Bank to “Hold”

Erste Group Bank cut shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Mizuho raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of V stock opened at $338.69 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.27. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $268.23 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $620.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of V. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,034,939,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after buying an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $673,689,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.