Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) traded up 0.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Seaport Res Ptn upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The stock traded as high as $309.53 and last traded at $309.26. 1,391,473 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 5,465,913 shares. The stock had previously closed at $306.92.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on V. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its position in Visa by 5,034.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $590.71 billion, a PE ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $312.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $287.85.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.