Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, May 2, 2025

Article Excerpt

VISA INC., $347.60, New York symbol V, is your #1 Conservative Buy for 2025. The company operates the world’s largest electronic-payments network. It processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions in over 200 countries. Despite the uncertainty over tariffs, consumer spending on retail goods and fuel remains strong. That offset slowing spending on travel and entertainment. In its fiscal 2025 second quarter, ended March 31, 2025, Visa processed 60.65 billion transactions. That’s up 9.4% from 55.46 billion a year earlier. As well, cross-border volumes (excluding transactions within Europe) improved 13%. As a result, Visa’s revenue in the quarter rose 9.3%, to $9.59 billion from $8.78 billion. That topped the consensus forecast of $9.55 billion. Earnings before unusual items also gained 6.4%, to $5.44 billion from $5.12 billion. The company spent $4.5 billion on share buybacks in the quarter, so per-share earnings rose 10.0%, to $2.76 from $2.51. That also beat the $2.68 consensus estimate. For all of fiscal 2025, Visa expects its revenue will rise about…