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

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $304.44.

Several research firms have recently commented on V. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after purchasing an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Visa by 5.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,895,015,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after purchasing an additional 85,123 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $265.74 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $272.82 and a 200-day moving average of $274.11. The company has a market cap of $486.02 billion, a PE ratio of 29.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a one year low of $227.68 and a one year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.