Visa (NYSE:V) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09, Zacks reports. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%.

Visa Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $7.38 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $343.26. The stock had a trading volume of 7,894,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,745,500. Visa has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $344.44. The company's 50 day moving average price is $316.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $292.09. The firm has a market cap of $639.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 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-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $335.52.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 completion of the sale, the insider now 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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