Research archive for V

Visa's recently-published quarterly results which were very good, as usual. They routinely deliver double-digit growth in all company financial metrics (payment volumes, net revenue, profits, etc).

On Tuesday night, Visa reported a solid set of results. It is always nice when our stocks have better revenue and profit numbers than the market expects. For the quarter, Visa had revenue of $9.6 billion and net income of $5.3 billion, both up 12% from September last year. To generate all that cash, Visa processed 75 billion transactions, up 11%. The key segment of cross-border payments was up a healthy 16%.

Since listing in 2008, Visa is up 1 620%. That means it's given investors an average annual return above 20% for 16 years. It has been an incredible investment. We have been happy holders of the stock for the majority of their listed journey.

Visa's monthly volumes report is a good indicator of how well the global consumer is doing. I am happy to tell you that in their latest update, things look pretty robust. According to CEO Ryan Mclnerney (pictured below), payment volumes in the US are up 5% through August, and cross-border volume is in line with their already optimistic forecast.

We write a lot about companies in this newsletter and their prospects for further top-line growth. We don't typically profile their CEOs.

Visa reported numbers on Tuesday night, its third-quarter revenue growth fell slightly short of Wall Street targets, marking a rare miss for the world's largest payments processor. The company's shares dropped 4% on Wednesday. The last time Visa missed on revenue was in 2021 when travel had stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first Vestact client bought Visa in November 2008 for $12.85 per share, it now trades at $275. That person has a sweet 2 033% return and has never sold a single share. Visa is the longest-standing position in our current portfolio and I do not see that changing anytime soon, especially after another solid earnings release on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago Visa and Mastercard struck a deal with millions of US merchants which is expected to save the merchants about $30 billion in swipe fees over the next five years. A few clients emailed to ask if we were concerned about the impact on Visa's margins. The short answer is, no.

Visa had quarterly results out last week. Pretty much everyone with a portfolio with Vestact owns this global payments processor. We've been accumulating them since they listed on the NYSE in March 2008.

Last night Visa, our second most widely-held stock behind Apple, reported steady growth for the second quarter of 2023. Both revenue and profit figures came in higher than Wall Street expected, reflecting a resilient global consumer.

Visa is reportedly in advanced discussions to acquire Pismo, a Brazilian fintech company that offers cloud-based payment and banking platforms. The potential $1 billion deal is expected to be announced this month.

Last week Visa reported another pleasing set of quarterly numbers. Visa is a mainstay in the Vestact-recommended portfolio, the one that our clients have owned for the longest time. We started buying it when it listed in March 2008 at around (a split-adjusted) $13 a share. It now trades at $225 a share, a 1 655% return over that period.

Yesterday Visa announced their new peer-to-peer payment aggregator, called Visa+. Initially the service will allow for payments between PayPal and Venmo, two popular payment apps in the US which are both owned by PayPal Holdings Inc. To reach a maximum number of customers, users don't need to have a Visa card to use the service.

Fifteen years ago, we were first alerted to the proposed listing of Visa on the New York Stock Exchange. We were immediately interested in owning the shares for clients.

Visa released their monthly metrics from October which indicated that despite horrible global inflation, people are still spending. Global processed transactions increased 40% from 2019, slightly above the 39% expected.