Visa (NYSE:V) Earns Buy Rating from The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group reissued their buy rating on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a $317.00 price target on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on V. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $309.81.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $287.35 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $268.29 and a 200-day moving average of $273.24. The company has a market capitalization of $523.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alaethes Wealth LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Jessup Wealth Management Inc boosted its position in Visa by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,410,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the first quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the first quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,793 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.