Visa (NYSE:V) Given “Buy” Rating at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated their buy rating on shares of Visa (NYSE:V) in a report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $317.00 price objective on the credit-card processor’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on V. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America restated a neutral rating and set a $297.00 price target (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Macquarie reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair upgraded Visa to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $309.81.

Visa Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of V opened at $287.35 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $523.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.11, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $268.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is 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.