Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.9% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price was up 0.9% during trading on Monday 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 $332.70 and last traded at $333.21. Approximately 1,511,566 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 5,310,132 shares. The stock had previously closed at $330.20.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $335.52.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average is $314.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.79. 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 company has a market cap of $622.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

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.