Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target Raised to $371.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $326.00 to $371.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $328.41.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $317.71 on Wednesday. Visa has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $303.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $282.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $591.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the second quarter worth $39,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.