Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 0.5% during mid-day trading on Friday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $395.00 to $410.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $352.67 and last traded at $352.38. Approximately 1,481,639 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 5,587,317 shares. The stock had previously closed at $350.49.

V has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $329.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $302.34. The firm has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.