Covea Finance Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Covea Finance trimmed its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 118,927 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 7,056 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.5% of Covea Finance’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Covea Finance’s holdings in Visa were worth $28,243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,717,000. Markel Corp increased its holdings in Visa by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares during the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,496,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.35% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $552,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $55,706,880. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.47, for a total transaction of $2,016,880.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $552,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $55,706,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 81,550 shares of company stock worth $19,795,806. 0.22% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $241.00 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.60 and a 1-year high of $250.06. The stock has a market cap of $448.70 billion, a PE ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $241.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $232.04.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.05. Visa had a net margin of 51.94% and a return on equity of 49.42%. The firm had revenue of $8.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.98 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 8.65 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.84%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $266.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $248.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, July 24th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, August 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $284.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $273.77.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.