Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

V has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.2 %

V stock opened at $339.10 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $629.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.18, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month 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. The business has a fifty day moving average of $339.91 and a 200-day moving average of $312.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,005,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its position in Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.