Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) reached a new 52-week high during 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 $291.00 and last traded at $291.00, with a volume of 3415 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $290.48.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup cut their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $319.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.22.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after purchasing an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,833,981,000 after buying an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 1.1 %

The stock 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. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $269.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $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.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.16 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.