Credit card giant Visa (V) recent came under perhaps the worst kind of fire: government fire. Senator Richard Blumenthal recently called for information about Visa and its connections to the social media platform X, run by Elon Musk. The connection did little good for Visa, as shares slipped modestly in Friday afternoon’s trading.
Blumenthal called for information about Visa’s connection to X, particularly how Visa looks to connect to X’s efforts to launch a digital wallet system. Given that Elon Musk, in his capacity with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, had a hand in reducing staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Blumenthal of course wondered if there was a connection between the various factors at play therein.
Blumenthal specifically called attention to how Visa might “…take advantage of the deep conflicts of interest and unscrupulous conduct of its new business partner.” While certainly no such unscrupulousness has been proven in a court of law or anything other than the opinions of Senator Blumenthal, Blumenthal likely believes that there may be something more concrete afoot, and thus went fishing accordingly.
The Global Growth Plan
But a connection to X is not the only iron Visa has in the fire, reports note. In fact, it has a larger battle plan in mind for building growth opportunities. In fact, it is looking for these opportunities all over, especially as consumer card growth is starting to decline. CEO Ryan McInerney recently tackled the subject at an investor day presentation, and revealed a “deep bench” to work with.
There was the matter of Visa-as-a-Service, which offered up a new way to remove bundling and make more targeted solution offerings. There was also potential growth in commercial card services, as well as value-added services. And the “unbundling” efforts Visa is undertaking so far are leading the way therein. Should all go as hoped, Visa will ultimately produce between 9% and 12% revenue growth, projections suggest.
Is Visa a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on V stock based on 25 Buys and three Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 22.27% rally in its share price over the past year, the average V price target of $386.17 per share implies 13.15% upside potential.
