Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Visteon (NASDAQ:VC) Stock

Visteon (NASDAQ:VC) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $90.00 to $95.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Visteon from $101.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Visteon in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wolfe Research raised Visteon from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Visteon from $120.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their target price on Visteon from $108.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visteon has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $116.00.

Visteon Trading Up 4.8%

Shares of VC stock opened at $118.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.63. Visteon has a fifty-two week low of $65.10 and a fifty-two week high of $119.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Visteon (NASDAQ:VC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $2.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.35. Visteon had a return on equity of 23.22% and a net margin of 7.61%. The business had revenue of $969.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $943.12 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.54 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visteon will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visteon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 18th.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Joao Paulo Ribeiro sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.09, for a total value of $81,713.90. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,872.82. This represents a 9.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Robert R. Vallance sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.15, for a total value of $200,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 20,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,086,925.70. This represents a 8.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visteon

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its holdings in shares of Visteon by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 5,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $550,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Visteon by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 19,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,866,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visteon by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 6,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visteon by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 8,519 shares of the company’s stock valued at $756,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Visteon by 111.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visteon Company Profile

Visteon Corporation, an automotive technology company, designs, manufactures, and sells automotive electronics and connected car solutions for vehicle manufacturers worldwide. The company provides instrument clusters, including analog gauge clusters for 2-D and 3-D display-based devices; information displays that integrate a range of user interface technologies and graphics management capabilities, such as active privacy, TrueColor enhancement, local dimming, cameras, optics, haptic feedback, and light effects; and infotainment and connected car solutions, including scalable Android infotainment for seamless connectivity, as well as onboard artificial intelligence-based voice assistants with natural language understanding.