Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shot up 0% during trading on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $314.00 to $320.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $274.13 and last traded at $271.35. 8,237,131 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 31% from the average session volume of 6,264,667 shares. The stock had previously closed at $271.28.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,090,978,000 after purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,895,015,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Visa by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Visa by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,015,639 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,648,985,000 after purchasing an additional 3,209,334 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $279.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $262.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market cap of $498.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

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.