Paul LarsonVisa Inc.VDON'T BUYAug 22, 2008

EPS of $2.41 beat estimates of $2.34 and sales of $8.6B beat estimates of $8.55B. Net income grew by 17% over the prior year, and its sales grew by 9%. Cross-border volume saw a large increase, of 16%, and management noted that it is off to a solid start with net revenues growing 9% and earnings growing even faster. It conducted share repurchases and dividends of $4.4B in the quarter, and the CEO sees strong opportunity across consumer payments and value added services. Operating expenses declined, leading to profit margin expansion, and its outlook for FY2024 is low double-digit revenue and operating expense growth, and a low-teens earnings growth rate. Overall, these were solid results, and while the stock dropped slightly today, it has been recovering.
Unlock Premium - Try 5i Free

Long term 0 a very good investment. Digital payments excepted to growth further. Very good business with high margins. Lots of room for top line revenue growth (expecting double digits). "Tap Pay" growth accelerated curing Covid-19. Will continue to hold shares. 

Macro perspective - company has competition from other providers. Retail numbers strong in US which is good for company. Recent strength a good sign for momentum investors. Outlook for company looks good. Would recommend buying. 

#1 in the world. Digital trend will continue. Fantastic brand recognition and strategic partnerships. 14-15% EPS growth rate for next several years.

See his Top Picks.

Toll booth, no credit risk. Catchup travel benefits remain as a consequence of Covid shutdowns. Still lots of growth to move from cash transactions to plastic. B2B growth. Associated loyalty programs push its use. Innovative. Network is hard to replicate. Yield is 0.8%.

Doesn't own, but doing work on it. First among equals. Always looks expensive. Looking just at valuation, a dynamic, secular compounder with wide competitive moat. Warrants a premium valuation. Keep holding, don't trim, unless it's become an outsized portion of your portfolio.

Trading at 25x earnings, not excessive given the fundamentals. Lots of room for growth to move from cash to plastic. 60% of business is international, where growth is about twice that of NA. He'd buy today.

Wonderful business. One of the two dominant payment networks. Prefers it to MA, as it's the largest, with the most scale, and the most profitable. Anti-trust penalties are offset by volume growth. Little capex, with less than 10% of cashflow needed to maintain the network. Benefits from trend to digital.

Rich valuation. Wait to add.

Great company with excellent business model. Scores 10/10 fundamentally for team. Largest payment processor in the world. Amazing brand reach. Expecting $276 share price. Nature of business means company will be around for a long time. Move to cashless society also good for business. Rising consumer debt also good for business. 

Owns shares of company. Very strong company with lots of room to run. Excellent brand name with very strong technology. Has owned shares before and has since re-purchased when the shares fell. Compares very well with Mastercard in terms of valuation and technology. 

It is like a toll booth and gets paid every time someone uses their card. It doesn't have the credit risk like banks do. It is hard for other companies to duplicate the processing part of Visa or Mastercard so this helps alleviate the risk of competition. There is lots of growth in the business to business area. It has had a great year because travel has taken off and lots of money is made from travel

Improving post-pandemic spending and travel have been helping. Outperforming broader index. Long runway for growth in the electronic payment space, global volumes will push higher. Strong chart. Above 200-day and 200-week MAs. Sees earnings growth, revenue growth of 10-11%. Steady.

Cross-border travel recovery since Covid is a big margin. Talk about transaction rates going down, but it seems to be able to weather those storms. Real moat around its technology. He remains positive.

Reports next week and will blow it out of the water. They carry nearly no debt, not exposed to the consumer, and have an incredible balance sheet.

It's a permanent compounder, but not exciting, not that much movement. Shares are up 12% this year, but the market is up 20%.