8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy According to Analysts

5) Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 163

Analysts’ Average Price Target: 11.32%

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) operates as a payment technology company in the US and internationally.

While the company continues to be a leader in the payments industry, market experts believe that its strong network effect and pricing power form a wide economic moat. If customers who are using Visa continue to increase, it will look attractive to the merchants because of a potentially big market. Therefore, when merchants accepting Visa cards increase, the number of customers who plan to use them will also increase. As a result, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s growth for the next decade continues to stem from its large scale.

Strategic partnerships, together with a strong focus on technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), should continue to stem its growth trajectory. Investments in AI should further improve its payment ecosystem and improve sales. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) aims to capitalize on the $20 trillion global consumer payments opportunity, with a strong focus on acceptance expansion, e-commerce, and product innovation. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) remains optimistic about sustaining growth in new flows, primarily in Visa Direct and the commercial business.

In 3Q 2024, the company saw its net revenue coming at $8.9 billion, up 10%. This growth was seen on the back of YoY improvement in payments volume, cross-border volume, and processed transactions. Compass Point initiated coverage on the shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) on 4^th September. They gave a “Buy” rating, with a price target of $319.00.

Aoris Investment Management, a specialist international equity manager, released its 2Q 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) operates the world’s largest payments network, which facilitates the movement of money between merchants, financial institutions, consumers, businesses, and governments.

The company is best known for enabling consumers to make debit and credit card payments. In the year to September 2023, 4.3 billion Visa cardholders made 213 billion transactions on its network, to a total value of US$12.1 trillion.

Compared to cash and cheques, which are still widely used around the world, Visa’s network is a more convenient, secure, and ubiquitous way for consumers to pay. Visa has invested to reduce friction and fraud in the payments experience, to the benefit of both merchants and consumers…” (Click here to read the full text)