Evercore Raises Price Target On Visa And Mastercard

Evercore raised its price targets Monday on Visa Inc V and Mastercard Inc MA.

Analyst Dave Togut forecasted that the eventual sale of Visa Europe to Visa Inc will be accretive to Visa Inc by impacting EPS +3 percent within 1 year of a sale and +5 percent accretive in year two.

Visa Europe holds a put option which, if exercised, will require Visa Inc to buyout Visa Europe.  Togut valued the Put option at $13 billion and felt that significant cost savings would result from the combined companies.

The price target for Visa was raised from $261 to $304 based on 25x 2016 estimated EPS of $12.15.  Mastercard's price target was raised to $110.

Visa, Inc. recently traded at $258.12, down 0.03 percent.

Mastercard Inc recently traded at $87.10, down 0.21 percent.