Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $321.00 to $375.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $316.87 and last traded at $315.01. Approximately 1,514,998 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 6,882,979 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.78.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Unionview LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Menard Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.3% during the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $591.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $303.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.