Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report released on Thursday.

V has been the subject of a number of other research reports. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded down $2.99 during trading on Thursday, hitting $336.51. The stock had a trading volume of 17,254,663 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,730,029. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $340.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $313.06. The firm has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,005,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.