Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has raised Visa's price target from $386.00 to $402.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.23% from the company's previous close.
• Visa reported quarterly earnings of $2.98 per share, exceeding estimates by $0.13, with revenue growing 14.3% year-over-year to $10.17 billion.
• Visa has a market capitalization of $649.35 billion and is currently rated as a "Moderate Buy" by analysts, with an average target price of $376.76.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $386.00 to $402.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the credit-card processor's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 14.46% from the stock's previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, June 13th. Mizuho raised Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.16.

Visa Price Performance

V traded down $0.07 on Wednesday, reaching $351.22. The company had a trading volume of 12,115,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,149,551. The company has a fifty day moving average of $355.61 and a 200-day moving average of $345.86. The company has a market capitalization of $648.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.30, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa has a one year low of $254.51 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 59.03%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 101,108 shares of company stock worth $36,771,200. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 82.0% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Company Profile

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.