Citigroup Boosts Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $321.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price boosted by Citigroup from $314.00 to $321.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a buy rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $302.58.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

V opened at $274.58 on Wednesday. Visa has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $279.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $264.33. The company has a market cap of $504.27 billion, a PE ratio of 30.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,874 shares of company stock worth $5,506,827 in the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.