Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $353.96.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Bank of America lifted their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

V opened at $361.60 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $333.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $306.64. The company has a market capitalization of $671.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.45, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.