Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $353.96.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

V opened at $363.33 on Tuesday. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $364.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $333.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $305.66. The firm has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.