Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at BNP Paribas Exane

BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Visa (NYSE:V) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

V has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Loop Capital assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 target price for the company. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Visa from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $387.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $398.36.

Visa Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:V opened at $351.68 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $336.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $325.13. Visa has a 52 week low of $293.89 and a 52 week high of $365.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $630.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.63, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa will post 13.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,625,440. This represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $5,877,738,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 867.6% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 8,213,610 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,880,595,000 after purchasing an additional 7,364,762 shares during the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 29,706.3% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,332,947 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,216,310,000 after buying an additional 7,308,345 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Visa by 12,497.1% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 3,378,039 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,184,712,000 after buying an additional 3,351,223 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,508,089 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,282,472,000 after buying an additional 2,116,463 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa announced a partnership with Airwallex to build embedded-finance tools for freight and shipping platforms, a move that could expand Visa’s footprint in cross-border B2B payments and working-capital solutions. Visa and Airwallex Team on Embedded Finance for Freight Companies
• Positive Sentiment: DoorDash’s new instant-deposit features for drivers use Visa Direct, highlighting continued adoption of Visa’s real-time money-movement infrastructure in consumer and gig-economy payments. DoorDash Launches Instant Deposits for DoorDash Crimson with Astra
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Visa to “strong-buy,” adding to the bullish case that the company’s earnings momentum and premium network position can support further upside. Visa upgraded by BNP Paribas Exane
• Neutral Sentiment: Several preview articles ahead of Visa’s fiscal Q3 results point to continued revenue and earnings growth, with consensus estimates around $3.23 EPS on $11.35 billion in revenue; investors are waiting to see whether the company can justify its valuation when it reports next week. Visa’s Q3 Earnings Could be a Catalyst: Should You Buy Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: Jim Cramer also highlighted Visa as a beneficiary of resilient consumer credit demand, which reinforces a positive spending backdrop but does not change the near-term fundamentals on its own. Jim Cramer Highlights Visa (V) as Consumer Credit Demand Soars
• Negative Sentiment: A Reuters report on new U.S. visa restrictions targeting people tied to cybercrime is not directly related to Visa Inc.’s payments business, but the headline may have created some noise for the stock due to the shared name. US announces visa restriction policy for people complicit in cybercrime

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.