JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Positive Forecast for Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price

Visa (NYSE:V) had its target price lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $340.00 to $375.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on V. Bank of America lifted their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.27.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.05 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $317.74 and a 200 day moving average of $292.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

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.