Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Citigroup Analyst Says

Visa (NYSE:V - Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Citigroup from $326.00 to $354.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the credit-card processor's stock.

V has been the subject of several other research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Visa Stock Up 0.8 %

V traded up $2.32 on Tuesday, reaching $309.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,107,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,958,574. The company has a market capitalization of $576.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $312.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $287.65.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

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.