Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $355.84.

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $343.60 and a 200-day moving average of $315.06. The company has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.