Stock split gives Visa extra appeal

Article Excerpt

VISA INC. $273 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 616.0 million; Market cap: $168.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 13.2; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network, through which it processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions. In its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended December 31, 2014, Visa’s earnings rose 11.5%, to $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 15.0%, to $2.53 from $2.20, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue rose 7.2%, to $3.4 billion from $3.2 billion. The company gets half of its revenue from outside the U.S. Without the negative impact of currency exchange rates, revenue gained 9%. Visa processed 17.6 billion transactions in the quarter, up 10.1% from a year earlier. The company now plans to split its shares on a 4-for-1 basis in March 2015. That will improve the stock’s liquidity. Visa is a buy. buy. …