Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Now Rated "Buy" by Wall Street Analysts

Key Points

• Analyst sentiment is strongly positive: All 37 covering brokerages rate Visa Buy or Strong Buy, with an average 1-year price target of $443.35.
• Visa beat quarterly estimates, reporting EPS of $3.48 versus $3.44 expected and revenue of $12.14 billion versus $12.09 billion; revenue grew 13.2% year over year.
• Visa raised its quarterly dividend from $0.67 to $0.78 per share, equivalent to an annualized $3.12 and a 0.7% yield.

Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Buy" from the thirty-seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Thirty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $443.35.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Erste Group Bank raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $387.00 to $404.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Visa from $420.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Visa from $443.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $430.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,028 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.35, for a total transaction of $773,377.80. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,018,365.40. The trade was a 9.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.87, for a total value of $2,161,236.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,582,059.38. The trade was a 27.91% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 29,262 shares of company stock valued at $11,195,791 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Patron Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 4,215 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,515,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $105,195,000. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 174.2% in the third quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 33,154 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $11,913,000 after acquiring an additional 21,065 shares during the last quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the third quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,682 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,323,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shared Vision Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $425.56 on Thursday. Visa has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $442.23. The business's fifty day moving average is $388.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $759.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The credit-card processor reported $3.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $12.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.09 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 70.50% and a net margin of 51.20%. The company's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.98 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa will post 15.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.30%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.