Visa (NYSE:V) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Monday.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of Visa stock traded up $3.02 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $365.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,721,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,023,899. Visa has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $678.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $337.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Plancorp LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 20.2% in the 1st quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 6,520 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,285,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094 shares during the last quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 70.6% in the 1st quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC now owns 58,360 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $20,454,000 after acquiring an additional 24,158 shares during the last quarter. NatWest Group plc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $11,126,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 379,276 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $132,920,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Night Owl Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Night Owl Capital Management LLC now owns 90,240 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,625,000 after acquiring an additional 3,475 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by 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.