Raymond James Financial Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Visa (NYSE:V)

Visa (NYSE:V)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Raymond James Financial in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $408.00 price objective on the credit-card processor’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $398.00. Raymond James Financial’s price objective points to a potential upside of 18.42% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on V. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.0%

V opened at $344.53 on Wednesday. Visa has a 1-year low of $287.19 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $631.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $344.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $640,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.