Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Up 1.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price traded up 1.7% on Monday after Piper Sandler upgraded the stock from an overweight rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $345.81 and last traded at $341.8610. 8,002,009 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 1% from the average session volume of 7,959,813 shares. The stock had previously closed at $336.23.

V has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings cut Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Visa in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 target price on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $397.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 20,970 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.25, for a total transaction of $7,135,042.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,162,953.50. This trade represents a 58.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 63,064 shares of company stock worth $21,289,800 in the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is gaining attention from the launch of Open USD, a new stablecoin initiative backed by Visa and more than 140 partners, including major names like Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Google and Coinbase. Investors may view this as evidence that Visa is staying central to the next phase of digital payments and cross-border money movement.
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Visa (V) from overweight to strong-buy, which can help support the stock by signaling stronger analyst confidence in the company’s outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: Visa said consumers are still spending on discretionary items by hunting for deals online, suggesting payment volumes may remain resilient despite inflation pressure.
• Positive Sentiment: Traders bought an unusually large number of call options on Visa, a sign of rising bullish sentiment and expectations for further upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also expanded its travel platform and added new smartphone-based payment tools for small businesses, both of which support its long-term growth story but are less likely to move the stock immediately.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 20,970 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan. The sale is not necessarily a bearish signal, but insider selling can still create some caution among investors.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Chapman Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the third quarter. Chapman Financial Group LLC now owns 3,211 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,096,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd now owns 9,447 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,313,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Bank OZK boosted its position in Visa by 3.7% in the third quarter. Bank OZK now owns 858 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $293,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. FOCUS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. FOCUS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,710 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,704,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. now owns 1,598 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $630.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $324.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $324.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.