Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Friday.

V has been the subject of several other reports. Wedbush boosted their target price on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 price objective (down previously from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.25.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $259.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,227,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,072,978. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $267.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa has a one year low of $227.78 and a one year high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $473.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,651,000. Tobam increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 3,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $963,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 12,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,153,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 316.4% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 139,999 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $36,449,000 after buying an additional 106,377 shares during the period. Finally, Segment Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 60,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,738,000 after purchasing an additional 2,478 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.