Citigroup Boosts Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $393.00

Visa (NYSE:V) had its price objective hoisted by Citigroup from $354.00 to $393.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the credit-card processor’s stock.

V has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $342.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. 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 50-day moving average price of $317.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $292.96. Visa has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th 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 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position 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 valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. 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.