Citigroup Cuts Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $319.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price target reduced by Citigroup from $321.00 to $319.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho lifted their price target on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $307.25.

Visa Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $259.46 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $474.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.95. Visa has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $270.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.30.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.16 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Visa by 787.1% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,122 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter valued at $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,671,866,000 after buying an additional 1,715,686 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.