Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Down 4% Following Analyst Downgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price dropped 4% during trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $290.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as low as $253.58 and last traded at $254.17. Approximately 4,013,508 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 6,836,598 shares. The stock had previously closed at $264.79.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $271.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $274.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $464.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.45, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

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.