Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

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

V has been the topic of several other reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $343.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.06. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.