Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Down 0.7% Following Analyst Downgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s share price traded down 0.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Macquarie lowered their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $380.00. Macquarie currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Visa traded as low as $340.12 and last traded at $343.22. 1,662,983 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 7,200,455 shares. The stock had previously closed at $345.50.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on V. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 154,400 shares of company stock worth $52,711,258. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $217,000. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $306,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its position in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group increased its stake in Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,663,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $811,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $645.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $337.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $324.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

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.