Visa (NYSE:V) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at TD Cowen

TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a research note published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $320.00 price objective on the credit-card processor’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on V. Wedbush increased their price target on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Mizuho reiterated a neutral rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $296.87.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $275.96 on Thursday. Visa has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $506.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $280.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $261.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,930 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $904,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Towerpoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $216,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 10.1% in the third quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Richelieu Gestion SA acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group grew its position in shares of Visa by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,064,000 after purchasing an additional 476 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is 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.