Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on V. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $356.13 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $337.30 and a 200-day moving average of $328.04. Visa has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 company has a market capitalization of $661.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total value of $5,259,207.52. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,377,671.52. This represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 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.