Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $329.70.

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Unionview LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co raised its position in Visa by 0.9% during the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.3% in the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $314.91 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $309.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $285.76. The firm has a market cap of $586.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend 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.