Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $310.93.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $318.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $322.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth about $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth about $404,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 4.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914 shares during the period. Finally, Arjuna Capital lifted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $277.01 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $272.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.10. Visa has a twelve month low of $227.78 and a twelve month high of $293.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $506.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.