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

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

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, 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 transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Visa by 27.0% in the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 9,860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 217,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,113,000 after buying an additional 1,078 shares during the period. Charles Lim Capital Ltd increased its position in shares of Visa by 225.0% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd now owns 325,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $85,303,000 after buying an additional 225,000 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,593 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Lingotto Investment Management LLP lifted its holdings in Visa by 11.2% during the second quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 32,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,490,000 after acquiring an additional 3,253 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $312.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $287.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $590.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio 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.