Don Lato Visa Inc. V-N BUY Feb 02, 2012

Remains one of the best compounders out there. Has moved beyond swipe fees to value-added services; fraud tools and data analytics continuing to grow extremely quickly, now accounting for over 25% of revenue. Core business benefiting as travel rebounds. Consumer spending remains resilient. Trades at 31x forward PE, not cheap but fair.

It reports Tuesday. It always sells off after it reports, because its financials are hard to understand.

A good name to look at for credit services in the financial sector.

Recent struggles are probably due to stablecoin, which is tied to the US dollar. If it can manifest into an efficient system (very low, or zero, transaction fees), could be a threat to V's business. Visa also has the ability to change its fees or to set up its own stablecoin. He's not too concerned, it's really just noise. This is his favourite.

Down 8% off 52-week high, which is normal trading that can happen to any stock at any time. Down 3% this week. As good a time as any to buy.

The world of business is just fine. Great company, will do well longer term. Fears of stablecoin. Short-term issues will get sorted out. 

He owns MA.

Global leader, few competitors. Stock's come down to 200-day MA, which is always a good time to dip back in (and he did). He's held this name since 2016, adding when down and trimming when frothy. Revenue for 2026 expected to exceed $44B. Really consistent, very steady growth. Around 13-15% compounded earnings growth ahead. Yield is 0.71%.

Financials are a good idea now, especially fintech. He prefers Visa to Mastercard, because it trades a little cheaper. Is a consistent, high earnings company.

She still sees upside and it is one of the best known players in global payments. It has double digit revenue growth and its value added services contribute to more than a quarter of its revenue. Still has high margins. Returned $6 billion to shareholders in buybacks and dividends last year. Has strong fundamentals.

Has grown its dividend 23% annually for the last 15 years. Rising prices means that Visa will take a larger portion in charges. Visa is the #1 in most markets over Mastercard (also excellent), and is larger. 

Though he's not a fundamental analyst, he can offer a small insight into the credit industry. There's been a lot of talk that's there's probably going to be some reason for the Fed to ease, and that's because the economy is probably slowing down. Purchases will be down, so Visa and the like will suffer.

That's probably why it's stopped moving up to the same degree as the S&P 500. Looking at the chart, you can see the consolidation pattern; as long as the pattern doesn't break, you're OK. Don't assume anything. If it breaks to the upside, you want to be a longer-term owner. But it could also break to the downside, possibly for the fundamental reason mentioned above. So you need to be cautious on this one. The consolidation could be a warning sign.