Visa (NYSE:V) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Erste Group Bank upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The stock traded as high as $366.60 and last traded at $365.6420, with a volume of 926313 shares. The stock had previously closed at $362.53.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Loop Capital started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Visa from $371.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and nineteen have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $399.41.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa was upgraded from “hold” to “buy” by Erste Group Bank, adding to the constructive analyst view of the stock. A separate report cited a roughly $395.88 price target, implying additional upside. Finviz
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is supporting X Money, Elon Musk’s newly expanded financial-services platform, through Visa-branded debit cards. Broader availability could create incremental card-issuance and payment volume opportunities for Visa. Cross River to enable P2P payments, banking services for X Money
• Positive Sentiment: The launch of a Samsung Galaxy Card is another potential expansion of Visa’s payments ecosystem and helped support recent investor enthusiasm. Visa Stock Gains With New First-of-its-Kind Credit Card
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results after the closing bell on July 28. Investors are focused on payment volume, cross-border spending, transaction growth and management’s outlook, while analysts have been revising estimates ahead of the release. Visa Earnings Are Imminent
• Negative Sentiment: Visa plans to eliminate approximately 2,600 positions, or 7% of its workforce, to improve efficiency amid tougher conditions in the payments industry. The cuts may reduce expenses and support margins, but their scale also signals pressure to adapt to changing competition and payment trends. Visa plans to cut 7% of workforce

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of V. Invariant Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $969,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. increased its stake in Visa by 58.1% in the 1st quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 4,201 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after buying an additional 1,543 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,143,000 after buying an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,966,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $338.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $325.18. The company has a market cap of $658.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Company Profile

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.