Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 1.2% during trading on Thursday after Macquarie raised their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $335.00. Macquarie currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $296.34 and last traded at $293.74. 1,656,057 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 7,049,005 shares. The stock had previously closed at $290.16.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $320.07.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Donald L. Hagan LLC boosted its position in Visa by 32.1% during the third quarter. Donald L. Hagan LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Maia Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Maia Wealth LLC now owns 9,109 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,580,000 after buying an additional 943 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank grew its stake in Visa by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 9,610 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,642,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 81.3% in the 3rd quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 10,301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,832,000 after acquiring an additional 4,620 shares during the period. Finally, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 69,056 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $18,987,000 after acquiring an additional 3,071 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $280.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $273.38. The company has a market capitalization of $534.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.