Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.7% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price rose 0.7% during mid-day trading on Friday after Piper Sandler raised their price target on the stock from $322.00 to $368.00. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $330.75 and last traded at $330.53. Approximately 944,834 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 5,337,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $328.21.

V has been the subject of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $334.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $314.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.