Visa (NYSE:V) Trading 0.7% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) rose 0.7% during trading on Friday 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 $330.75 and last traded at $330.53. Approximately 944,834 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 5,337,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $328.21.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Bank of America upped their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Macquarie upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $314.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $289.98. 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 cap of $615.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.96, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.