Visa (NYSE:V) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $322.00 price target on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. William Blair raised Visa to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a neutral rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $310.22.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $275.17 on Wednesday. Visa has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $293.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $503.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $271.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.35.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Visa will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 18,396 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,829,000 after buying an additional 7,734 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 101,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,627,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at $721,000. Lazari Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 31.3% in the second quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,536 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth about $87,426,000. 82.15% of the stock is 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.