Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) shares shot up 0% on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $314.00 to $320.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $274.13 and last traded at $271.35. 8,237,131 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 31% from the average session volume of 6,264,667 shares. The stock had previously closed at $271.28.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.43.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $2,717,000. Markel Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after acquiring an additional 3,065 shares during the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $1,496,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $279.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $262.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $498.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

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.