Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Wednesday.

V has been the topic of several other reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research 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 stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of V opened at $329.26 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $611.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average of $341.11 and a 200 day moving average of $320.08. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, 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 worth $48,842,490 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the 4th 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 during the period. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in 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 during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.