By Carly Forster
Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is a Foster City, California based American multinational financial services corporation that connects financial institutions, merchants and governments around the world with credit, debit and prepaid products. Visa, along with American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), was recently given the opportunity for expansion by partnering with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for its Apple Pay service.
Not only will this partnership assist in simplified solutions for its customers, but Apple Pay will now support credit and debit card payments on the Visa network, along with American Express and MasterCard, which covers almost 83% of the total credit card purchase capacity in the United States. In fact, just last week Visa revealed a new service in which tokens will be used to replace the 16 digit credit card number for a more secure transaction through Apple Pay. Charlie Scharf, Chief Executive Officer, Visa Inc. said in a statement, “Combining the trust, scale and security of Visa payments with Apple Pay will accelerate adoption of mobile payments.” He continued, “We said from the beginning that token services would provide great new consumer and merchant experiences, and you’re seeing it today in our efforts with Apple, and there’s more to come.”
Shares of Visa opened at $214.21 on Wednesday, September 16th. The company has a 1-year high of $235.50 and a 1-year low of $180.11. The stocks daily moving average is $215.72 and has a 50-day moving average of $213.00. The market cap for the Visa is $136.52 billion and its P/E ratio is 25.71.
On September 16th, Sterne Agee analyst Thomas McCrohan initiated a Buy rating on Visa with a $265 price target. He noted that Visa Inc (NYSE:V)’s market cap “is well positioned to benefit from the global secular shift to electronic-based forms of payments.” Mccrohan has an 85% success rate in recommending stocks, earning him an overall +15.5% average return.
Similarly on September 15th, Seeking Alpha blogger, Options Calling, named Visa as a good long-term opportunity. He reasoned that Visa is “very likely to outperform the broader market over the long haul (3-4 years horizon). Considering the current share price, among the factors discussed above, Visa is a good investment for those looking to add long-term positions.” Options Calling currently has a 55% success rate in recommending stocks, earning him an overall average return of +1.9%.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Visa is Moderate Buy.
To see more recommendations for Visa Inc (NYSE:V), visit TipRanks today!
Carly Forster writes about stock market news. She can be reached at [email protected]
