Stock price when the opinion was issued
97% gross margins, and 60% operating margins. A play on global transaction volumes. Worries about stablecoins; but however people decide to pay for something, Visa will take its share. There will always be competitive threats, but its network is a backbone of payments and can't easily be replicated. Yield is 0.68%.
(Analysts’ price target is $387.33)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.
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.
It owns the technology that processes transactions so it is basically a tech business. However it is very expensive with P/E in the 30 times range so you have to believe they're going to grow. It is a solid business and inflation actually helps them. There are disruptions in the payment space which are chipping away at Visa's moat. Change is coming but how fast - this will affect growth in their business.