Raymond James Reiterates Outperform Rating for Visa (NYSE:V)

Raymond James reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $393.00 price target on the credit-card processor’s stock, up from their prior price target of $374.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased 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. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday. Four equities research 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.05 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.27 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. Visa has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $317.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $293.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.