Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at BNP Paribas Exane

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by analysts at BNP Paribas Exane to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on V. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Evercore set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $412.00 target price on Visa and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $398.36.

Visa Stock Down 1.3%

NYSE V opened at $355.94 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $335.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $325.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $638.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.75. Visa has a 52 week low of $293.89 and a 52 week high of $365.14.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa will post 13.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after acquiring an additional 388,996 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after acquiring an additional 716,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Visa by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,359,291,000 after acquiring an additional 398,459 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.