Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price was up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $265.00 to $275.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $269.38 and last traded at $267.80. Approximately 1,175,372 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,870,658 shares. The stock had previously closed at $267.61.

V has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Wedbush upped their target price on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Visa by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,943,773 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,973,432,000 after purchasing an additional 596,950 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Visa by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,659,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323,238 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after buying an additional 763,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $3,895,015,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $278.47 and its 200 day moving average is $265.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $493.08 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

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.