Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of May 12, 2020

Article Excerpt

Visa’s shares dropped as much as 38% in the recent market downturn—from the record high of $214 hit in February 2020 to as low as $134. But the stock has rebounded to today’s price and is now down just 15%. The recovery reflects renewed investor confidence, for a number of reasons, in Visa’s strong long-term outlook. The COVID-19 crisis will hurt the company, of course. After all, with many consumers laid off from their jobs—as well as under social distancing and stay-at-home orders—retail transactions are down. Globally, however, 85% of retail transactions are still made with cash. This leaves a lot of room for expansion by the electronic payments industry. Visa’s strong business reputation and widely recognized brand ensure that it will capture a major share of this growth. As well, Visa keeps investing in, and acquiring, new technology to add to its growth prospects. This includes its recent $5.3 billion purchase of fintech leader Plaid Inc. (we’ll say more on that below). All this…