13 Best Forever Stocks to Buy Right Now

2. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 165

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is an American multinational payment card service corporation that provides a variety of associated services and products to its customers. The company links about 4 billion account members to over 130 million merchants and 14,500 financial institutions in over 200 countries.

In Q1 2025, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) witnessed overall payment volumes in constant dollars increase by 9%, up from 8% in the fourth quarter of 2024. This increase was mostly because of overseas markets, which jumped by 11%, surpassing the preceding quarter’s growth of 10%. In addition, payment volumes increased by 7% in the United States, above the 5% rise in the fourth quarter of 2024. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) expects net revenue to expand at a high single-digit to low double-digit percentage rate in the second quarter, adjusted for the leap year.

Mar Vista Global Strategy stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)  in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“After lagging the broader markets over the last one, three, and five years, we believe Visa Inc.’s (NYSE:V) stock now reflects a more conservative and realistic expectation for future cash flow growth. The electronic transaction toll-taker has long enjoyed a highly defensible network effect that connects global buyers and sellers and scale advantages that keep upstart competitors from disrupting the industry’s economics. At the same time, Visa directly benefits from the secular trend of replacing cash with e-payments. Penetration rates and transaction volumes in developed markets will inevitably slow over the next five years yet we expect Visa revenues to grow 8-10% over our investment horizon. Key value drivers remain global consumer spending growth, e-transaction penetration, “new flows” expansion in areas like business-to-business transactions, and lastly, value-added client service growth.

Visa’s dominant position is reflected in its nearly pristine financials: 68% operating margins, greater than 70% incremental operating margins and only 3-4% capital expenditures as a percent of sales. Awash in excess capital, Visa is one of the more aggressive purchasers of its own stock. Shares outstanding over the last fifteen years have declined by one-third and we expect the company to continue to repurchase 2-3% of shares outstanding annually. Since the 2016 acquisition of Visa Europe, total returns on capital have expanded from 25% to 50% and we expect the metric to approach 100% over the next five years as net operating profits expand roughly 60% on a flat capital base. Overall, Visa should compound per share intrinsic value at 10-13% over the next five years.”