Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 0.8% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.8% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $326.00 to $371.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $321.15 and last traded at $320.93. Approximately 1,569,391 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 6,869,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.30.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.41.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Shelton Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. Shelton Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares during the last quarter. Iowa State Bank increased its stake in Visa by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Iowa State Bank now owns 19,098 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,013,000 after buying an additional 586 shares during the period. Rockland Trust Co. raised its position in Visa by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 130,970 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,376,000 after buying an additional 1,036 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 110,138 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,908,000 after acquiring an additional 957 shares during the period. Finally, Perennial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the second quarter. Perennial Advisors LLC now owns 38,377 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,073,000 after acquiring an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.8 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $597.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $301.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.78.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Visa Company Profile

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.