| BUY | 74.050 | Andrew Guy, CFA | American Express (AXP-N) had a disappointing 2nd quarter, due to problems of people paying their bills and resulted in a higher loan-loss. Visa is a processor and not responsible for losses due to unpaid bills. However, slowing down of consumer purchases will affect the number of transactions. At this level, it is relatively attractive. | 2008-07-22 | |
| DON'T BUY | 75.870 | Gordon Reid | Trading at about 30X earnings, which is a little rich. He would prefer it at 20X earnings. Great business. No credit risks. | 2008-07-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | 75.620 | Gavin Graham | Up 75% since it went public in March however, this is not a MasterCard Mach II, which made you 3 or 4 times your money in the last couple of years. He has reduced his holdings. Pretty expensive even with good growth. | 2008-07-07 | |
| Comment | 78.070 | Bill Carrigan | An IPO that hasn't been out too long so he can't chart it easily but it does have a symmetrical triangle. This one seems to be trying to come out the bottom. Look at MasterCard (MA-N) and see how it is doing. If it violates the trend line he would exit this one. They will both do the same thing. | 2008-07-03 | |
| BUY | 82.660 | Robert Floyd | Strong name in the financial services sector. Trying to mimic American Express by promoting a lot of new cards with prizes. This is cutting into margins. For a long-term play, it is a decent stock to own. | 2008-06-24 | |
| DON'T BUY | 80.310 | David Baskin | Not bullish on this company. His concern is the ability of the banks to take on more credit cards. Visa doesn’t have the credit risks, but as cards get maxed out and go into default there will be fewer transactions. | 2008-06-10 | |
| DON'T BUY | 86.070 | David Garrity | Seems to have gotten ahead of itself. Would like to have this one season at little bit longer after its IPO. | 2008-06-02 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 86.360 | Robert Floyd | Can enter stock and add to it if weakness, preferred over Mastercard. | 2008-05-30 | |
| DON'T BUY | 85.250 | Michael Sprung | Little concerned because of consumers being overextended. Credit card debts are getting very high at the moment. If interest rates back up a little bit, this could be under threat. | 2008-05-29 | |
| DON'T BUY | 78.740 | David Baskin | The ability to grow its cardholder base and to grow the number of retail transactions in the current economic environment is restrained. | 2008-05-27 | |
| DON'T BUY | 76.350 | Laura Wallace | Likes the concept, but there will be a better opportunity. Big advantage is that they benefit from the transactions but don’t take any risks. A little expensive. Would consider in the $55 range. | 2008-05-23 | |
| DON'T BUY | 80.850 | Charles Bobrinskoy | Was a relatively hot IPO. Trading at a pretty full multiple. People are hoping there is going to be significant international growth. Discover (DFS-N) and American Express (AXP-N) are both cheaper and he would rather own American Express. | 2008-05-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 82.230 | Gordon Reid | A processing company that gets paid on the volume of transactions. There are no credit risks. A little bit too expensive and a little bit too hot off the IPO. | 2008-05-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | 82.380 | David Baskin | Stock roared out of the gate and people who were lucky enough to get it on the IPO made a lot of money. Feels it is a little too hot right now. He is concerned about 2 things in the business. 1) The increasing rate of credit card defaults and 2) as interest rates go up, their margins will get squeezed. | 2008-05-13 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 87.300 | Cameron Webster | 2 marquee stocks that he is watching right now are Visa (V-N) and MasterCard (MA-N). They have no credit risk. They are transactional-based businesses. The multiples in terms of earnings are a bit rich. Wait for a pullback. If you want global growth, MasterCard would be the better. | 2008-05-08 | |
| BUY | 88.500 | Paul Thornton | They don't have the problem of a possible default risk as they are just processing transactions. Mutual funds will be accumulating this stock. | 2008-05-07 | |
| BUY | 87.530 | David Burrows | Thinks the stock goes higher in the intermediate term. The Visa issue was very popular because 1) there was very little credit risk involved and 2) it is a play on global transactions that are growing very rapidly. Not inexpensive, but feels it's a long-term growth story. | 2008-05-06 | |
| DON'T BUY | 83.450 | Norman Levine | This was a hot IPO not too long ago. It did well because it is a great brand name. Also, the history of MasterCard’s IPO was fabulous. Probably overvalued. Entirely tied into consumer spending. | 2008-04-30 | |
| HOLD | 80.880 | Robert Floyd | IPO was extremely successful. Thinks it's a little bit on the rich side currently. | 2008-04-29 | |
| DON'T BUY | 75.100 | Duncan Stewart | Pricing on this is quite high. Had a spectacular run. One of his big concerns is its ability to control fraud going forward. If fraud goes too high, there would be less use of credit cards. He would prefer it in the $60 range. | 2008-04-25 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 72.300 | Paul Harris, CFA | An excellent story. He thought there would be a pullback and would buy it then. There are no debt issues or bad credit card issues. It should do very well. Fundamentals are very strong long-term. Try to buy at $65. | 2008-04-24 | |
| Comment | 70.080 | David Driscoll | A crapshoot simply because of the IPO. They benefit from the move to plastic from writing cheques. There will be a lot of volatility in the near term, so treat this as a trading stock and use limits. | 2008-04-23 | |
| BUY | 69.000 | David Burrows | If you are going to be in financials, this is a pretty good spot to be. It will be a very popular name for institutions to own. Limited liability. Income from fees. | 2008-04-18 | |
| BUY | 64.350 | Alan Kral | Will be treated as high growth and dividends won’t grow very rapidly. With any kind of retraction/recession, especially in the US, there could be some slowdown. However, their ability to grow outside the US is virtually unlimited. Not a bad time to get involved if you are prepared to hold it for 3 to 5 years. | 2008-04-15 | |
| BUY | 33.370 | Paul Thornton | The stock hasn't been out very long, but it's trading well. It's a big company and a growing company. MasterCard was up about 5X since its IPO. If you look out a couple of years from now, what mutual fund is not going to own a piece of this. Large company, so a safer and better place to be in this market. | 2008-04-11 | |
| DON'T BUY | 33.370 | Michael Smedley | (Market Call Minute.) Came out with a massive premium and is probably still there so he wouldn't buy it. | 2008-04-01 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 33.370 | Paul Harris, CFA | Not a lending company, it’s a toll route, processing. A great story, think it will go up. If it pulls back $5 you should buy. | 2008-03-20 | |
Experts that have talked about Visa Inc.