UBS Group Issues Positive Forecast for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price target boosted by analysts at UBS Group from $350.00 to $400.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.05% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on V. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $350.77.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V traded up $1.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $344.68. 4,818,463 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,695,550. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $317.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $292.45. The company has a market cap of $642.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by 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.