Visa rewards investors

Article Excerpt

VISA INC. $237 is a buy. The company (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 2.1 billion; Market cap: $497.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 15.5; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic-payments network. It processes credit, debit and other transactions in over 200 countries. Thanks to the post-pandemic rebound in travel volumes, Visa’s revenue in its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter, ended September 30, 2023, rose 10.6%, to $8.61 billion from $7.79 billion. If you factor out currency rates, revenue increased 10.3%. Earnings before unusual items also climbed 17.7%, to $4.82 billion from $4.09 billion. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings gained 20.7%, to $2.33 from $1.93. With the December 2023 payment, Visa will raise your quarterly dividend by 15.6%, to $0.52 a share from $0.45. The new annual rate of $2.08 yields 0.9%. It also plans to buy back $25.0 billion of its shares. Visa is a buy. buy. …