Visa (NYSE:V) Lowered to "Hold" Rating by StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V traded up $0.87 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $333.01. 6,292,001 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,416,059. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $337.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $310.05. Visa has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $618.66 billion, a PE ratio of 33.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

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Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,163,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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