Visa (NYSE:V) Research Coverage Started at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a research report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an in-line rating and a $330.00 target price on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Up 2.8 %

V stock opened at $333.69 on Wednesday. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $619.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $342.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $318.76.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Visa

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.