Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 0.7% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.7% on Friday after Piper Sandler raised their price target on the stock from $322.00 to $368.00. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $330.75 and last traded at $330.53. Approximately 944,834 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 5,337,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $328.21.

V has been the subject of several other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $334.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2,662.4% during the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 112,514 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,532,000 after acquiring an additional 108,441 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its position in Visa by 28.3% in the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 590,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $154,887,000 after buying an additional 130,254 shares during the period. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.3% during the second quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,244 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Marshfield Associates boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the second quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 925,954 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $243,035,000 after acquiring an additional 2,825 shares during the period. Finally, Makena Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the second quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 61,525 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $314.54 and its 200-day moving average is $289.98. The firm has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 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.