Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.9% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price rose 0.9% during mid-day trading on Monday 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 $332.70 and last traded at $333.21. Approximately 1,511,566 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 5,310,132 shares. The stock had previously closed at $330.20.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on V. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.52.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $1,972,000. Stratos Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 7,042 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,226,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 38,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,133,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 746,436 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $235,904,000 after buying an additional 22,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sargent Investment Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 80.7% during the fourth quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 5,745 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,763,000 after purchasing an additional 2,565 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market capitalization of $619.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $314.95 and its 200 day moving average is $290.79.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.