Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Down 1.7% Following Analyst Downgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price fell 1.7% on Tuesday after Erste Group Bank downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The company traded as low as $337.63 and last traded at $338.66. 10,116,742 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 56% from the average session volume of 6,491,053 shares. The stock had previously closed at $344.36.

V has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $345.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $346.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $620.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

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.