Research archive for V

Right, next up in my review of the virus impact on our major holdings is payments processor Visa. As I said yesterday, we need to try to pinpoint how the changed world that we live in now will impact on their revenue and profitability, and decide if we are still comfortable to hold their shares at current prices.

The payments processing giant Visa released outstanding financial and operating results, on Thursday the 30th of January. In a record quarter, the company processed over $3 trillion in transactions, up 11%, which drove revenues to grow by 10% to $6.05 billion. Profits of $3.27 billion also grew at the same clip of 10%. Visa's high fee cross-boarder transaction volume growth increased by 9%.

On Monday Visa announced a $5.3bn acquisition of Fintech start up called Plaid. That is a lot of money!

As we know, Visa is a very profitable company operating in payments; a fast growing sector with lots of innovation. When you are that profitable, you are at risk of disruption. That is why Visa continues to snap up stakes in exciting payments companies.

Our biggest and most widely held stock in our client base, Visa, reported Q4 and full year numbers last night. Here is what Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly had to say.

In the travel and tourism space we hold Booking.com shares. What many people do not realise is that Visa is also well poised to benefit from this growing trend . I mean, the name "Visa" should be a big enough clue.

Payments processing giant Visa reported second quarter earnings numbers last night. The San Francisco-based company has market value of over $400 billion, and is the largest portfolio holding in most Vestact customer accounts.

Visa released its Q2 earnings, showing that consumer confidence was subdued outside of the US. Increasing consumer spending in North America though, sent profits surging 14% higher. The Visa share price was only down 0.3% after-hours thanks to a very bullish picture painted by management for the second half of the financial year.

One of the things that strikes me about following great companies for a long time is how people underestimate their ability to keep on growing. When we first advised clients to buy Visa shares, it was listing on the New York market at around $15 a share. The actual initial public offering (IPO) took place on March 18, 2008. Prior to that is was a mutual organisation, owned by the banks that issued its branded cards and used its switching network.

Our top client holding, by the number of holders, remains fund transfer processor Visa. The San Francisco-based corporation employs just 15,000 people but has a market capitalisation of $300 billion.

This opinion piece in the Motley Fool comparing Square and Visa made some interesting points. First and foremost it estimates that consumers globally still spent over $17 trillion with cash and cheques last year. That right there is the opportunity.

Visa is our biggest holding in New York and has done incredibly well. In 5 years the share price is up 212%. But this does not mean we must become complacent and expect it to continue to thrive. The competition for electronic payments is heating up, and many merchants are tired of absorbing swipe fees.

On Wednesday evening after the market closed, our biggest US holding, Visa reported earnings. Over the last 12-months, the stock is up 40% and over the previous 5-years it has tripled in value.

On Thursday night Visa released their second quarter results for 2018. It was another good 3 months for the company. Revenues increased 13% whilst earnings per share increased 30%.

I get the hype around Bitcoin and blockchain technology. The notion of an unregulated, fee free, community-based network sounds great. The problem is people will always misbehave. It is human nature. Even more importantly, governments need to track payments so that they can gather taxes. No one likes paying taxes, but they are very necessary. Yesterday India expressed a will to regulate cryptocurrencies. Can you blame them? They have been working exceptionally hard to eradicate a cash based society in order to track payments and raise taxes. If Bitcoin went mainstream with no regulation, then that would have been in vain.