Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Covea Finance’s 10th Largest Position

Covea Finance raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 176,421 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,000 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 2.5% of Covea Finance’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Covea Finance’s holdings in Visa were worth $55,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in shares of Visa by 79.0% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $316.45 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $312.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $287.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a PE ratio of 32.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. 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, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; 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.