Visa (NYSE:V) Trading Up 0.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $279.00 to $292.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $290.82 and last traded at $290.43. Approximately 1,138,562 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 7,049,893 shares. The stock had previously closed at $289.85.

Several other research analysts have also commented on V. Bank of America lifted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $320.70.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of V. Costello Asset Management INC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 8,455 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,325,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.7% in the third quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,613,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $443,496,000 after acquiring an additional 42,987 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 215.4% during the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,774 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,439,000 after acquiring an additional 40,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carr Financial Group Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.2% during the third quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,656 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

The stock has a market cap of $529.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $281.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.65.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 21.38%.

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.