William Blair Issues Optimistic Estimate for Visa Earnings

Key Points

• William Blair analysts have raised their Q1 2026 EPS estimate for Visa to $2.98, highlighting a positive outlook reflected in an "Outperform" rating for the stock.
• Visa's recent quarterly earnings revealed an EPS of $2.98, exceeding expectations and showing a 14.3% increase in revenue year-over-year, reaching $10.17 billion.
• Several analysts, including Morgan Stanley and UBS Group, have increased their price targets for Visa, with UBS setting a new target of $415.00, reflecting strong investor confidence.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) - Stock analysts at William Blair raised their Q1 2026 EPS estimates for shares of Visa in a report issued on Wednesday, July 30th. William Blair analyst A. Jeffrey now forecasts that the credit-card processor will earn $2.98 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $2.92. William Blair currently has a "Outperform" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Visa's current full-year earnings is $11.30 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Visa's Q2 2026 earnings at $3.06 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $3.40 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $12.73 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $14.43 EPS.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share.

V has been the topic of a number of other reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded down $6.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $338.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,655,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,746,410. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.12. The business's fifty day moving average price is $355.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $346.34. The firm has a market cap of $625.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.94. Visa has a one year low of $254.51 and a one year high of $375.51.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FWL Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,005,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Transcendent Capital Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 2.9% in the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 89,913 shares of company stock valued at $32,902,432. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

About Visa

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.