Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 3,125 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 55,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,125 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 2.4% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $14,690,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Second Line Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 9,194 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,413,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares during the last quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC now owns 5,196 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,364,000 after purchasing an additional 677 shares during the last quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.9% during the second quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 14,485 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,802,000 after buying an additional 274 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Visa by 97.8% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,085,618 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $284,966,000 after buying an additional 536,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 345,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $90,583,000 after acquiring an additional 47,211 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

V stock opened at $275.17 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $503.27 billion, a PE ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $293.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $271.31 and its 200 day moving average is $273.19.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on V. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $322.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.