Hsbc Global Res Upgrades Visa (NYSE:V) to Strong-Buy

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by Hsbc Global Res from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Macquarie reduced their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $399.52.

Visa Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $326.40 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $594.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa has a 12-month low of $299.00 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $338.17 and its 200-day moving average is $345.52.

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 200.0% in the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.