Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target Raised to $371.00 at Morgan Stanley

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $326.00 to $371.00 in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.41.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $5.00 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $314.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 265,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,879,442. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $301.66 and a 200-day moving average of $281.98. The stock has a market cap of $586.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its 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. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.23 EPS for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. IMS Capital Management increased its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 10,962 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,014,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 12.6% during the third quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,298 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the third quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 27,274 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,499,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares during the period. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $224,000. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $714,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.