Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 2.1% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price was up 2.1% on Wednesday after Seaport Res Ptn upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $316.42 and last traded at $315.72. Approximately 1,497,562 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 5,437,135 shares. The stock had previously closed at $309.09.

V has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in V. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in Visa by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 11,910 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,764,000 after acquiring an additional 943 shares during the last quarter. Whitener Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Whitener Capital Management Inc. now owns 33,228 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,502,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $228,000. 25 LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $205,000. Finally, Sax Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $716,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

The company’s 50-day moving average is $312.76 and its 200-day moving average is $287.65. 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 firm has a market cap of $587.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.43, 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. 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 was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.