Covenant Asset Management LLC Has $2.12 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Covenant Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,719 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,123,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Visa by 10.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,730 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,425,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 5,688 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cedrus LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.6% in the third quarter. Cedrus LLC now owns 2,257 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $621,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on V shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Down 0.5 %

V opened at $353.73 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $325.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $299.42. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $356.08. The company has a market cap of $657.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.