Piper Sandler Upgrades Visa (NYSE:V) to Strong-Buy

Visa (NYSE:V) was upgraded by equities researchers at Piper Sandler to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $397.96.

Visa Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of V stock opened at $342.63 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $324.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Visa has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $359.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $614.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.85, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.77.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa will post 13.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 63,064 shares of company stock worth $21,289,800 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Visa

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,038,140,000 after purchasing an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after purchasing an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Visa by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Visa by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,792,246 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,463,484,000 after buying an additional 193,288 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Visa to strong-buy, signaling stronger Wall Street confidence in the stock. Zacks.com
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s participation in Open USD and other stablecoin initiatives suggests it could remain central to next-generation digital payments. Visa and Google Sign on to Use Money Movement Stablecoin OpenUSD
• Positive Sentiment: Visa expanded its travel platform and cross-border partnerships, which could support payment volume growth. Visa redefines its role in travel with the global expansion of Visa Destinations
• Positive Sentiment: Visa said consumers are still spending on discretionary items by hunting for deals online, a constructive sign for transaction trends. Visa Says Online Deal Hunting Sustains Consumers’ Discretionary Spending
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa launched smartphone-based payment acceptance tools for small businesses, a positive long-term development but likely incremental near term. Visa Brings Card Acceptance to SMB Smartphones
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 20,970 shares, which may weigh on sentiment even though the trade was made under a pre-arranged trading plan. SEC filing for CEO stock sale

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.