Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 0.1% on Friday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $265.00 to $275.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $269.38 and last traded at $267.80. Approximately 1,175,372 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,870,658 shares. The stock had previously closed at $267.61.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on V. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.00.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. SPC Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.4% in the first quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 5,463 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 447.7% during the first quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 838 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 39.6% during the first quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 1,948 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $544,000 after purchasing an additional 553 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the first quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC now owns 8,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,310,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bancreek Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bancreek Capital Management LP now owns 26,782 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,474,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $278.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $265.42. The company has a market cap of $493.08 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.