12 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Invest In According to Short Sellers

10. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 163

Short % of Shares Outstanding: 0.94%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a multinational payment card service provider based in the United States that facilitates electronic fund transfers across the globe. The company also provides commercial patent solutions, sells cards, has virtual cards, and offers B2B payment options.

In the past quarter, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) leveraged its proprietary services to expand its presence globally. Yape, a super app in Peru with more than 15 million users has now integrated Visa’s services to facilitate money transfers directly through mobile devices. Moreover, prominent digital wallets in Vietnam have enabled Visa cards for over 50 million users.

In the fiscal third quarter of 2024, the company logged $8.9 billion in revenue, up by 10% year-over-year. The company also grew its global payments volume by 7% and 5% in the US.

Analysts are bullish on the stock, and why should they not be? The company currently has more than 4.5 billion cards in circulation in over 200 countries. In addition to that, In the past 12 months, Visa has facilitated 296.8 billion transactions with a total volume of $15.5 trillion.

Overall, 163 hedge funds held stakes in Visa (NYSE:V) in the second quarter, with positions worth $24.9 billion. With stakes amounting to $4.4 billion, TCI Fund Management is the largest shareholder of the company, as of June 30.

Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

“Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) detracted from performance despite healthy corporate results. The Company grew earnings per share +12% as payment volume growth was up +8% and cross-border payment grew +16%, adjusted for currency. There are over 4.4 billion Visa debit and credit cards in circulation generating over $15 trillion in volume over the past 12 months. There is another estimated $10 trillion in cash and check volume, globally, which we think Visa can continue to move over to its electronic payment rails. In addition, the Company has spent the past several years extending its payment capabilities into new flows of commerce, particularly for business-to-business transactions. This is another, extremely large (+$200 trillion) long-term growth opportunity for Visa that we believe investors are ignoring.”