Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.7% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares traded up 0.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $279.00 to $308.00. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $292.80 and last traded at $292.57. 855,557 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 7,053,967 shares. The stock had previously closed at $290.48.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on V. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.22.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $269.81 and a 200-day moving average of $273.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market cap of $525.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

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.