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

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seventeen have assigned a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $400.00.

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th.

Visa Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $334.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company has a market capitalization of $608.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.72, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.87. Visa has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company’s fifty day moving average is $339.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $347.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 200.0% during the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.