One-glance verdict
$450.33 our estimate vs market $360.66
Wall Street consensus: $419.36 (-6.9% lower than our fair-value estimate)
20% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
V · NYQ · Financial Services · Credit Services
Current price
$360.66
52-week range
$293.89 - $385.57
Market cap
$677.09B
One-glance verdict
Wall Street consensus: $419.36 (-6.9% lower than our fair-value estimate)
20% below our estimate, below the bear case
Balance sheet
Net debt $10.07B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
What this company does
Visa operates a global payments network, making money by taking a small slice of each transaction when people use a Visa debit or credit card issued by their bank. This means the company benefits as more people worldwide switch from cash to cards, without carrying the risk of lending money to consumers itself.
Visa's story began in 1958 when Bank of America launched the first consumer credit card program, called BankAmericard, in Fresno, California. This new "revolving credit" feature was a novel concept when most people paid with cash. In 1976, the company rebranded to "Visa," a name that sounds the same in every language, reflecting its global ambitions. A major turning point came in 2008 when Visa went public in one of the largest stock offerings in history, changing its structure from a bank-owned cooperative to the publicly traded company it is today.
Visa is a payment technology company that connects consumers, businesses, banks, and governments in over 200 countries. It’s a common misconception that Visa issues credit cards or lends money; it doesn't. Instead, it operates a massive electronic payments network, often called VisaNet, that makes it possible for your bank to talk to a merchant's bank to authorize, clear, and settle your purchase in seconds. Think of Visa as the silent middleman that provides the secure and reliable infrastructure for swiping, tapping, or clicking to pay with a Visa-branded card issued by your bank.
This is a major part of Visa's business and comes from charging fees based on the total dollar amount of payments made with Visa-branded cards and products. The customers here are the financial institutions (the banks that issue the cards to you) and the merchant acquirers (the banks that process payments for stores). Essentially, the more money people spend using Visa cards, the more revenue Visa generates from these service fees. This segment is a significant contributor to Visa's overall income.
This is the largest single slice of Visa's income, making up about half of its revenue. Visa charges fees for the authorization, clearing, settlement, and other processing services that happen every time you use your card. These fees are for the use of Visa's secure network, VisaNet, which connects the cardholder's bank to the merchant's bank to make the transaction happen. So, for every single swipe, tap, or online purchase, Visa earns a small fee for processing the transaction.
This segment generates income from transactions where the cardholder's bank is in a different country than the merchant's bank. These are often called cross-border transactions and include things like currency conversion services. When you travel abroad and use your Visa card or buy something from an international website, Visa earns a fee for handling the complexities of the transaction. This is a substantial part of Visa's business, accounting for more than a third of its revenue.
This is a smaller but fast-growing part of Visa's business that includes various value-added services. These are services sold to clients like banks and merchants that go beyond basic transaction processing. Examples include fraud management solutions, data analytics, consulting services, and access to its brand and technology through licensing fees. This segment also includes revenue from Visa Direct, a platform that allows for real-time money transfers between people and businesses.
Visa's leadership is focused on expanding beyond just consumer card payments into what it calls "new flows" and "value-added services." This means pushing into business-to-business payments and other large money transfers that are still often handled by slower, manual processes. The company is also heavily investing in its value-added services, such as advanced fraud prevention using AI and data consulting, to become more deeply embedded with its clients. A key part of this strategy is building a "network of networks," using its existing global system to enable all sorts of money movement, not just traditional card purchases.
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $419.36 (-6.9% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $450.33 a share — about 24.9% above today's price of $360.66, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Net debt $10.1B. Interest coverage 45.1x.
Visa Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 45.1 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Total debt $23.86B Interest coverage 45.09x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $24.64B Interest coverage 27.03x -40% vs V Carries about 1.7x less debt cushion than V.
Total debt $14.22B Interest coverage 14.50x -68% vs V Carries about 3.1x less debt cushion than V.
What you should know
The numbers
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Valuation
Profitability
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Debt comparison
What you should know