Visa Inc. $V is Covea Finance's 8th Largest Position

Key Points

• Covea Finance has reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 12% to 198,863 shares, making Visa the firm's 8th largest position which constitutes about 2.6% of their total holdings.
• Visa reported $2.98 earnings per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations of $2.85, with revenue of $10.17 billion, reflecting a 14.3% year-over-year growth.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share with a yield of 0.7%, representing an annual payout of $2.36 and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Covea Finance trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 198,863 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 27,155 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 2.6% of Covea Finance's holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Covea Finance's holdings in Visa were worth $70,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 83.1% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of V stock opened at $338.69 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $268.23 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $346.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $620.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.08, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.96.

Visa Company Profile

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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