Brokerages Set Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) PT at $324.74

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $324.74.

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Macquarie boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $315.98 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $588.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $317.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $300.14 and its 200 day moving average is $281.46.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.23 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 issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.