Quiet Period Ends: Visa Analysts Unleash The Hounds (V)

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: April 28, 2008 7:00 am

The quiet period has ended for Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) after its IPO. The underwriters have thus initiated their coverage ratings this morning on the credit card payment processing company. Shares of Visa have risen by about 40% since its IPO.

These are not yet all of the calls that will be out this morning, but these are the coverage initiations seen so far early this Monday morning:

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey at Buy;
Goldman Sachs at Buy with $90 target;
UBS at Buy;
JPMorgan at Overweight;
Citigroup at Hold with $78 target;
Credit Suisse at Neutral;
Morgan Stanley at Equal-Weight with $75 target;

Prior to the quiet period ending, some brokerage firms were able to initiate coverage in the prior weeks ahead of the underwriters:

Keefe Bruyette Woods at Outperform;
Cowen & Co at Outperform;
Deutsche Bank at Buy;
Stifel Nicolaus at Buy.

Visa is also set to report earnings today, and a conference call will be held at 5:00 PM EST.

Jon C. Ogg
April 28, 2008

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