Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 0.2% during trading on Thursday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $339.00 to $375.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $315.24 and last traded at $314.29. Approximately 668,972 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 6,883,124 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.79.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on V. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $298.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $280.71. The company has a market cap of $586.45 billion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

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.