Visa (NYSE:V) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa (NYSE:V) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $331.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $616.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $337.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $310.62. Visa has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 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.