Updating Visa Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Canon Inc. ADRs

Article Excerpt

VISA INC. $95 (www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network, through which it processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions. In June 2016, the company acquired its European operations (Visa Europe). In all, it paid $13.9 billion in cash, $6.1 billion in preferred shares, and roughly $1 billion over the next three years. Thanks to that deal, Visa’s revenue in the quarter ended March 31, 2017, jumped 23.5%, to $4.5 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier. Excluding merger costs, earnings per share gained 26.5%, to $0.86 from $0.68. Best Buy. PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $89 (www.pg.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal-care goods. It recently increased its quarterly dividend by 3.0%, to $0.6896 a share from $0.6695. The new annual rate of $2.76 yields 3.1%. Procter has paid dividends for 127 years and has increased its payout annually for the past 61. Buy. CANON INC. ADRs $35 (www.canon.com) has completed its $5.9 billion acquisition of…