Digital shift fuels Visa

Article Excerpt

VISA INC. $254 is a buy. The company (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 2.05 billion; Market cap: $520.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 15.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.comwww.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic-payments network. It processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions in over 200 countries. Thanks to rising travel volumes and consumer spending, Visa processed 59.32 billion transactions in its fiscal 2024 third quarter, ended June 30, 2024. That’s up 9.8% from 54.03 billion a year earlier. As well, cross-border volumes (excluding transactions within Europe) improved 14%. As a result, revenue in the quarter rose 9.6%, to $8.90 billion from $8.12 billion. Earnings before unusual items also gained 9.1%, to $4.91 billion from $4.50 billion. The company spent $4.8 billion on share buybacks in the quarter, so per-share earnings gained 12.0%, to $2.42 from $2.16. For all of fiscal 2024, Visa’s earnings will likely improve 13% to $9.92 a share. The stock, which is up 10% in…