Visa (NYSE:V) Shares Up 1.7% After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price shot up 1.7% on Thursday 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 $316.87 and last traded at $315.01. 1,514,998 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 6,882,979 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.78.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $301.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $281.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $586.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.