Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 1.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) were up 1.2% during trading on Thursday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $279.00 to $292.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $296.34 and last traded at $293.74. Approximately 1,656,057 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 7,049,005 shares. The stock had previously closed at $290.16.

V has been the subject of several other reports. Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $320.70.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Visa by 787.1% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,296,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,122 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 40.1% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,671,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,715,686 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $529.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.88, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $281.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.63.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.12 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.