StockNews.com Upgrades Visa (NYSE:V) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $343.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $315.06. The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.