Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 344 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 56,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 344 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 1.6% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $17,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $349.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $343.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $314.66. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $649.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

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.