Pent-up travel demand is fuelling their gains

Article Excerpt

Now that most countries have lifted their COVID-19 travel restrictions, consumers are shifting their spending away from goods to experiences. That jump in travel volumes has spurred the earnings—and share prices—of these two payment card issuers. VISA INC. $222 is a buy. The company (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 2.1 billion; Market cap: $466.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 16.2; Dividend yield: 0.8%; 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. In the fiscal 2023 second quarter, ended March 31, 2023, Visa processed 50.10 billion transactions, up 11.7% from 44.81 billion a year earlier. As well, cross-border volumes (excluding transactions within Europe) jumped 32%. As a result, revenue in the quarter rose 11.1%, to $7.99 billion from $7.19 billion. If you factor out currency rates and the company’s exit from Russia, revenue increased 17.9%. The improved revenue also lifted earnings before unusual items by 14.3%, to $4.38 billion…