Brokerages Set Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Price Target at $375.52

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-eight research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $375.52.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Macquarie reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th.

Visa Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE V opened at $351.92 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $355.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $345.83. Visa has a 12 month low of $254.51 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $649.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.37, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 101,108 shares of company stock worth $36,771,200. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently 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.