Visa (NYSE:V) Raised to "Buy" at StockNews.com - MarketBeat

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

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $246.00 in a research note on Monday, October 10th. Redburn Partners assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, November 29th. They issued a "sell" rating for the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $254.00 to $238.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $271.00 to $264.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $250.00 to $220.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $248.69.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V traded up $0.77 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $205.83. The stock had a trading volume of 143,556 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,573,931. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $205.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $201.79. Visa has a one year low of $174.60 and a one year high of $235.85. The firm has a market cap of $387.68 billion, a PE ratio of 29.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The credit-card processor reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.86 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $7.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.03% and a return on equity of 48.56%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa will post 8.28 EPS for the current year.

Visa declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 25th that allows the company to buyback $12.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 25,627 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.67, for a total transaction of $5,552,602.09. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $50,291,707.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $1,080,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 153,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,699,660. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 25,627 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.67, for a total transaction of $5,552,602.09. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $50,291,707.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Continental Investors Services Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $391,000. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $2,405,000. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $3,306,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 8.3% during the third quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 19,190 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,409,000 after purchasing an additional 1,463 shares during the period. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 8.9% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 257,481 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $45,742,000 after purchasing an additional 20,961 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.87% of the company's stock.

About Visa

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Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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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