Visa (NYSE:V) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wells Fargo & Company

Key Points

• Visa has received an upgrade to a "strong-buy" rating by Wells Fargo & Company, significantly enhancing its investment appeal.
• Recent quarterly earnings showed Visa's earnings per share (EPS) of $2.98, exceeding estimates and marking a 14.3% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $392.75 for Visa's stock, indicating optimism about its future performance.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $392.75.

Visa Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of V opened at $345.10 on Wednesday. The business's 50 day moving average is $344.72 and its 200 day moving average is $347.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa has a 12-month low of $280.78 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a market capitalization of $632.50 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. 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.

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