Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 2.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 2.1% during trading on Wednesday after Seaport Res Ptn upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $316.42 and last traded at $315.72. Approximately 1,497,562 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 5,437,135 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.09.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $590.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $312.94 and a 200 day moving average of $287.85.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

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.