Visa Inc.

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $107.44 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index. It’s a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. This Vanguard ETF has an MER of just 0.09%. The $46.8 billion fund holds Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Walt Disney. Other top holdings include Philip Morris International, Comcast, Visa, Gilead Sciences and Oracle Corp. Its breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 23.0%; Health Care, 14.2%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.5%; Consumer Goods, 10.9%; Oil and Gas, 2.7%; Materials, 1.0%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. across 175 mutual funds and ETFs. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds are only available in a limited number of provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds that trade on stock exchanges. Here are two Vanguard ETF we see as low-fee buys....

Amex revenue fell 4% last year but a plan to sell its Costco loans and reduce expenses by $1 billion should raise earnings

ACI WORLDWIDE $18.83 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-390-7600; www.aciworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 118.3 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) makes software for processing transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. Its products also help cut fraud. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, ACI’s revenue fell 4.3% to $238.7 million from $249.6 million a year earlier. Earnings declined 6.1%, to $14.8 million, or $0.13 a share, from $15.7 million, or $0.14. The higher U.S. dollar cut revenue and earnings at the company’s international operations. ACI is benefiting from the shift to chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards. That migration is the result of a liability shift for the EMV (EuroPay, MaterCard and VISA) payment networks, which came into effect in October 2015....

ACI WORLDWIDE $18.83 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-390-7600; www.aciworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 118.3 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) makes software for processing transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. Its products also help cut fraud. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, ACI’s revenue fell 4.3% to $238.7 million from $249.6 million a year earlier. Earnings declined 6.1%, to $14.8 million, or $0.13 a share, from $15.7 million, or $0.14. The higher U.S. dollar cut revenue and earnings at the company’s international operations. ACI is benefiting from the shift to chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards. That migration is the result of a liability shift for the EMV (EuroPay, MaterCard and VISA) payment networks, which came into effect in October 2015....

CPI Card Group, $14.30, symbol PNT on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 56.5 million; Market cap: $808.0 million; www.cpicardgroup.com), makes plastic credit and debit cards, mostly for U.S. lenders like Bank of America, American Express, Visa and MasterCard. It produces 35% of all such cards issued in the U.S. The Colorado-based company first sold shares to the public and began trading on the Toronto and Nasdaq exchanges on October 15, 2015, at $10 U.S. per share. CPI sold 15.0 million shares in its initial public offering, raising proceeds of $142.5 million U.S. It originally hoped to raise $300 million U.S. but insufficient demand forced it to cut the number of shares it sold and their price. The company is benefiting as the U.S. shifts to debit and credit cards that use chip-and-PIN technology and away from magnetic stripes. This change accelerated with the EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa) payment networks’ liability shift, which came into effect in the U.S. on October 1, 2015....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $110.65 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.09%.

The $48.1-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Visa, Home Depot, Comcast, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences and Walt Disney Co. The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 22.2%; Health Care, 13.7%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.9%; Consumer Goods, 10.1%; Oil and Gas, 4.0%; Materials, 1.3%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%.

Vanguard Growth ETF is a buy.

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Costco’s membership fees and low prices make it a strong growth stock. We look at whether it can sustain growth against fierce competition

We recommend that investors diversify up to 30% of their portfolios into U.S. stocks and as much as 10% into international securities. One attractive way for safety-conscious investors to do this is with exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Today we look at several ETFs from a U.S. firm that offer a low-fee way to achieve this diversification. We profile two Vanguard ETFs that track a U.S. large-cap index and an emerging market index.

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. in 170 mutual funds.

Vanguard, which went into business in 1975, offers low-fee index mutual funds. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds aren’t available in all provinces.

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Visa, a global leader in credit and debit payments, expands into the fast-growing area of online and mobile payment transactions.