Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Covea Finance's 4th Largest Position

Covea Finance grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 28.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 226,018 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 49,597 shares during the period. Visa makes up 3.6% of Covea Finance's portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Covea Finance's holdings in Visa were worth $79,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Visa by 38,416.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 101,098 shares of company stock worth $36,738,526 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Macquarie cut their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating and a $400.00 price target for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.80.

Visa Stock Down 0.7%

V stock opened at $338.04 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The business's 50 day moving average price is $351.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $338.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company has a market capitalization of $623.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

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.

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