Analysts Set Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Price Target at $353.96

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $355.84.

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $343.60 and its 200-day moving average is $315.06. The firm has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities analysts expect that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.