3 ways to profit from online shopping

Article Excerpt

The shift toward online shopping continues to pick up speed: over the next 10 years, e-commerce could account for 40% of all retail sales in developed nations and 30% in emerging markets. We feel the best way to profit from this trend is through shares of companies that process online payments and fulfill orders, like these three. VISA INC. $209 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 628.4 million; Market cap: $131.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 10.9; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network, through which it processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions. Visa gets most of its revenue from fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. It bases its fees on payment volume, transactions processed and other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa. In its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended March 31, 2014, Visa’s…