Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on V. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $336.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $625.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $340.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $313.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC raised its stake in Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.