Visa (NYSE:V) Upgraded by Citigroup to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by investment analysts at Citigroup to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $392.75.

Visa Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:V opened at $345.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $633.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa has a fifty-two week low of $280.78 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $344.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.33.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. Visa’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. Analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its holdings in Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.