StockNews.com Downgrades Visa (NYSE:V) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Tuesday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on V. Bank of America reiterated a neutral rating and set a $297.00 target price (down previously from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $307.25.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

V opened at $266.58 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $268.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $274.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $487.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $227.78 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bensler LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 21,584 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,620,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc lifted its stake in Visa by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 1,347 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Clarus Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $362,000. Wendell David Associates Inc. increased its position in Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. now owns 19,997 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,206,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 367,444 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $95,664,000 after purchasing an additional 5,160 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.