Macquarie sees support for Visa navigating DOJ antitrust lawsuit

After the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa (V) this week, alleging the card network has monopolized the U.S. debit card market, Macquarie noted that subsequent to the DOJ complaint, Visa deposited $1.5B to its litigation escrow account. It seems the DOJ may be seeking remedies to structurally improve competitiveness in the marketplace, but it is unclear what form these remedies could ultimately take if the DOJ is successful, the analyst tells investors. The “well-established scale and pre-eminence of Visa in global payment flows,” along with MasterCard’s (MA) successful settling of a similar separate enforcement action brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2023 targeting the company’s tokenization technology practices, “support the outlook for Visa navigating this,” argues the analyst, who has an Outperform rating and $300 price target on Visa shares.