Citigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price

Key Points

• Citigroup raised its Visa price target to $490 from $440 and maintained a “buy” rating, implying 15.45% upside from the stock’s then-current price.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: Visa had a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $442.29.
• Visa beat quarterly estimates, reporting EPS of $3.48 versus $3.44 expected and revenue of $12.14 billion, up 13.2% year over year.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Citigroup from $440.00 to $490.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the credit-card processor's stock. Citigroup's target price indicates a potential upside of 15.45% from the stock's current price.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Visa from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $403.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $471.00 price objective (up from $416.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $387.00 to $404.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Visa from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $442.29.

Visa Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE V traded up $2.25 on Tuesday, reaching $424.41. 3,044,217 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,519,742. Visa has a 12 month low of $293.89 and a 12 month high of $442.23. The company has a market cap of $757.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.42, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $386.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The credit-card processor reported $3.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $12.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.98 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa will post 15.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.87, for a total transaction of $2,161,236.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,582,059.38. This trade represents a 27.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,028 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.35, for a total value of $773,377.80. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,018,365.40. This trade represents a 9.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over 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 bought and sold shares of the stock. XXEC Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 153,118.8% in the 2nd quarter. XXEC Inc. now owns 186,260,448 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $63,904,097,000 after acquiring an additional 186,138,883 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,435,262,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,808,496 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Visa by 33.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,486,927 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,356,090,000 after purchasing an additional 1,116,498 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Visa by 16.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,714,919 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,646,911,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,315 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Visa

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.

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