Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price objective increased by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $326.00 to $371.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 17.82% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $314.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $586.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $302.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $282.21. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $321.61.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. 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.