Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-four brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $303.00.

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nationale Nederlanden Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. increased its position in Visa by 3.1% in the first quarter. Nationale Nederlanden Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. now owns 10,249 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,860,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 119,983 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,485,000 after buying an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,508,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 206,441 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,614,000 after acquiring an additional 6,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Watershed Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Visa by 2.8% in the first quarter. Watershed Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,631 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,292,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 1.5 %

Visa stock opened at $276.65 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $277.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $266.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $505.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

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.