Visa (NYSE: V) stock is trading at an all-time high, thanks to a major price surge over the past two weeks.
The payment processor ended September at $359 per share, and in the two weeks since, it has climbed about 12% to $401 per share, an all-time high.
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Visa stock is up 14% year to date, with pretty much all of the gains coming in the past two weeks. There have been a few catalysts for Visa; most notably, it got approval from the People’s Bank of China to establish a bankcard clearing institution in China. This opens up one of the biggest markets in the world for Visa.
Also, on Oct. 15, the company’s Visa Direct stablecoin officially moved from the pilot stage to commercial deployment. Now, businesses can use the Visa stablecoin platform, marking a key milestone in bringing stablecoin-enabled money movement into commercial operations.
With these new developments, Visa stock got price target upgrades from both Baird and BMO Capital, perhaps providing a further boost.
A buy heading into earnings?
Visa reports its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Oct. 27, and it typically raises its dividend in Q4. It has done that every year since 2009, and it’s usually a substantial raise.
Last year, it bumped up the dividend 14% to $0.67 per share, and the year before that it was 13%. The two years previous to that, the raises were 15% and 20%, respectively.
Investors should expect a sizable dividend bump on Oct. 27, given that Visa anticipates Q4 revenue gains at the high end of low double digits, similar to the 14% gain in Q3. For the full fiscal year, it anticipates revenue growth in the low-teens and earnings per share (EPS) growth in the low- to mid-teens.
I still like it as a buy heading into earnings, with its forward P/E at a reasonable 24. Visa is durable across markets, which is why I like it as a long-term buy at this valuation.
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