Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Gets Price Target Increase from Citigroup

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Citigroup from $440.00 to $490.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the credit-card processor’s stock. Citigroup‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 15.45% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on V. Argus increased their price target on Visa from $396.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Clear Str raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and thirty-five have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $442.29.

Visa Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE V traded up $2.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $424.41. The company had a trading volume of 3,044,217 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,519,742. The company has a market capitalization of $757.34 billion, a PE ratio of 34.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Visa has a 1-year low of $293.89 and a 1-year high of $442.23. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $386.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $345.18.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The credit-card processor reported $3.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.04. Visa had a return on equity of 70.50% and a net margin of 51.20%. The firm had revenue of $12.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.09 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.98 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa will post 15.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie Rottenberg sold 1,867 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.34, for a total transaction of $687,690.78. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,778,929.36. This trade represents a 9.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.22, for a total transaction of $2,445,292.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,315,722.28. This represents a 27.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 27,395 shares of company stock valued at $10,406,050. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. XXEC Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 153,118.8% during the second quarter. XXEC Inc. now owns 186,260,448 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $63,904,097,000 after purchasing an additional 186,138,883 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,435,262,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Visa by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,720,068 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,393,398,000 after buying an additional 1,808,496 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Visa by 33.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,486,927 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,356,090,000 after buying an additional 1,116,498 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its position in Visa by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,714,919 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,646,911,000 after buying an additional 1,092,315 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc. operates a global payments network that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. Its network supports the authorization, clearing and settlement of electronic payments, including transactions made in person and online. The company’s services include payment processing, fraud prevention, identity and risk management, and money-transfer solutions such as Visa Direct. Visa-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards are issued by participating financial institutions; Visa generally provides the network and related services rather than issuing cards or extending credit directly to consumers.