Andreas Halvorsen Stock Portfolio: 5 Top Stock Picks

1. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 171

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a California-based payments technology firm. Latest data reveals that Viking Global owned over 6.9 million shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) at the end of the third quarter of 2023 worth $1.6 billion, representing 6.5% of the portfolio. 

On October 30, investment advisory Mizuho maintained a Neutral rating on Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) stock and raised the price target to $243 from $240, noting that US volume growth as a percent of incremental personal consumption expenditures for the firm was declining. 

At the end of the second quarter of 2023, 171 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $24 billion in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), compared to 173 in the preceding quarter worth $26 billion. 

In its Q3 2023 investor letter, Ensemble Capital Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Mastercard is a company that pretty much everyone has heard of. In fact, when we meet with Ensemble’s clients, we occasionally tell them that we’re nearly certain that they are carrying a Mastercard in their wallet or purse as we speak, and if not, they are carrying a Visa Inc. (NYSE:V). Most people carry both.

People carry Mastercard and Visa because they are accepted nearly everywhere in developed markets. And they are accepted in most emerging economies, at least at locations where higher income people spend money. As a shopper you can show up at a bodega in Peru, a high end hotel in Tokyo, a truck stop in Alabama, or an ice cream cart in Milan, show them a piece of plastic and they’ll let you walk away with goods and services without any worry that they aren’t going to get paid…” (Click here to read the full text)

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