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

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $335.52.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 1.2% during the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 101,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,157 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 18,396 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,829,000 after purchasing an additional 7,734 shares in the last quarter. Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $14,347,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,300,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $343.26 on Friday. Visa has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $344.44. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $316.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $292.09. The company has a market cap of $639.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.28, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.