Mastercard Inc. (MA)

One of two dominant players in the space. Considered more international. Credit card companies actually make a vast amount of $$ on the foreign exchange for transactions.

High quality, strong fundamentals, but stock went flat. Growth going sideways. He'd revisit if an opportunity arose.

Both MA and Visa have durable, long-term franchises. Very difficult to mess with a payments system. Incredible ability to invest in technology. It would be unusual to see them disrupted by new entrants. See his Top Picks.

Down 5% YOY. Overhang has been potential disruption in digital payments. Still likes it. Benefiting from the broader theme of moving from cash to credit. Feels it'll come out still looking good. Growing revenues 10-11%. Probably 15% earnings growth. Valuation not stretched at 22-23x PE. He's positive.

They are among the highest-quality businesses in the world. They get knocked around occasionally over concerns about interchange fees or PayPal or something threatening them. There's always something. If you own, you've done very well, and have a long-term horizon. Doesn't prefer one. You can own both. Buy it and forget it.

Just as with MA (which he also owns), Visa dominates fees charged and, therefore, controls its earnings. Very few players can upend them. Pursuing more technology advances. Visa trades at 27x forward PE, growing at probably 15+%. Very good valuation for a company with only 1 major competitor.

Visa has been weak technically, not participating in recent market moves. Still above 200-day MA today, and that's moving higher. Up 14% in last 12 months, which isn't that bad ;)

This year, there have been fears of stablecoins and cryptos displacing both Visa and Mastercard  However, both companies are too entrenched with merchants and customers to displace. There are few incentives for consumers to adopt stablecoin. He continues to like them.

Likes the long-term secular growth. 50% of world's transactions are still in cash. Seeing more cross-border transactions and leisure travel. Few competitors. Always trades at a bit of a premium. Still likes.

Trades at 32-33x PE. Visa trading at small discount of ~27x PE. At 15%, MA is growing faster than Visa's 12-14%. Fine with buying either one or both for the very long term.

The world of business is just fine. Fears of stablecoin, but company has gone ahead and allowed those payments on its credit cards.

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

Yesterday off by 5.5%, and that's continuing today. Pretty big reversal from high of around $591. See how it plays out. Volume on this drop is not as much as it was in the April downdraft. Indicates it might not have fully played out yet, and selling might continue.

He could see it drop back pretty quickly to the $470 level before seeing any support, which is where we were in April. Let the value players come in and buy it, and you'll typically see that reflected in the volume.

He owns Visa and owned MA a long time ago. Both are great, but he prefers Visa. Visa trades slightly cheaper in terms of valuation, and is much larger than Mastercard (Visa is bigger than all competitors combined). MA is more internationally active. Visa has a higher percentage of debit cards, which grows faster than credit cards. Visa competes well in terms of growth rates with MA, yet trades at a lower multiple, so cheaper. He likes that the debit card business is growing faster than credit cards.