Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Freedom Capital

Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $411.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Macquarie Infrastructure reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $410.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price objective on Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $392.21.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $319.14 on Monday. Visa has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $337.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.37. The company has a market capitalization of $579.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.94, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The company had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.75 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 25.14%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset One Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,170,000. BNB Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $456,000. Boothbay Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,997,000. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 92,610 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $32,479,000 after purchasing an additional 2,990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advanced Portfolio Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $457,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.