Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy Rating

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

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $336.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $340.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $313.06. The stock has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.92, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Visa by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 24,665 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,782,000 after purchasing an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in Visa by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 96,237 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,460,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.