3 Reasons to Buy Visa Stock Like There's No Tomorrow

Key Points

• Visa delivers solid earnings and revenue growth even during a volatile economy.

• The company is embracing AI initiatives, including a platform that would allow AI agents to make purchases.

• 10 stocks we like better than Visa ›

If you're looking for a combination of performance and security, there are few stocks in the market today that could top Visa (NYSE: V). The credit card company offers a payments network that connects banks, merchants, and consumers -- and gets a cut of the payment every time someone swipes their card.

Visa is set to report its earnings for the third fiscal quarter of 2025 on July 29 -- and all signs point to another solid report that should push Visa stock higher. Here are three reasons why you should be considering Visa on your shopping list to augment your investment portfolio.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Visa is an earnings stalwart

Visa is already coming off a strong second quarter (ending March 31, 2025) in which it processed 60.7 billion individual transactions, up 9% from the previous year. Revenue was $9.6 billion, up 9%, and non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings came in at $5.4 billion and $2.76 per share, up 6% and 10%, respectively, from a year ago.

"Consumer spending remained resilient, even with macroeconomic uncertainty," CEO Ryan McInerney said in the Q2 earnings release. "Our strategy across consumer payments, commercial and money movement solutions and value-added services, our diversified business model, and our focus on innovation position us well for the rest of the fiscal year and beyond."

Visa is seeing strong, consistent revenue growth, which is up 88% over the last five years. Earnings-per-share (EPS), meanwhile, is up 139%.

V Revenue (Quarterly) data by YCharts

Visa also repurchased $4.5 billion in shares in the second quarter and had another $4.7 billion available for additional authorized share repurchases. The company reiterated its guidance for full-year revenue growth to be in the low upper digits, and EPS growth to be in the high end of low double digits.

With no spending slowdown, even though the market is facing a few challenges with inflation and tariff concerns, Visa appears set to deliver another strong quarter when it reports earnings on July 29.

The company is embracing artificial intelligence

It seems as if artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, and forward-looking companies are looking for new ways to incorporate the technology into their products. That's why Visa rolled out its Visa Intelligent Commerce platform earlier this year that will allow people to use AI agents to find and buy products for them. The platform would include tokenized digital credentials that would replace physical cards, AI-powered personalization of spending and purchasing insights, and AI payments through Visa's network.

Visa says it's working with several AI companies on the efforts, including Anthropic, International Business Machines, Microsoft, Mistal AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, and Stripe.

Visa also has announced a new version of its Authorize.net web platform, which allows merchants to accept credit cards and electronic check payments online or over the phone. The platform includes a new user interface and AI capabilities with an AI agent, and dashboards that will help businesses analyze data and summarize insights.

Also, late last year Visa completed its acquisition of Featurespace, which is an AI-native transaction monitoring company that helps prevent financial crimes and fraud. The acquisition is designed to give businesses in the Visa network access to improved fraud detection services, including real-time detection of fraud attacks.

As AI continues to grow, both Visa's business clients and cardholders will rely more on AI for everyday tasks. While I think it's a little scary to turn my spending over to AI, in a few years it may be commonly done -- and it's important for companies like Visa to remain on the forefront of innovation.

Image source: Getty Images.

Visa is a stock that pays you back

In addition to its robust stock repurchasing plan, Visa is also a solid dividend stock. That's important for income investors who are looking to either use Visa's quarterly payouts for living expenses or to reinvest into their portfolio. Visa has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years and currently offers a dividend yield of 2.3%.

In addition, Visa's payout ratio is a minuscule 18.5%, which means this is one of the safer dividends that you can find. The payout is one of the reasons, I'm sure, that Visa has been a staple in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio since 2011.

In any economy, Visa can be seen as a safe-haven type of stock. When credit card balances increase and people are more likely to swipe or tap their cards, Visa gets more profit. And because Visa isn't in the business of lending money, like American Express, it doesn't have to worry about anyone defaulting on their loans.

The bottom line

Visa will never be confused for a sexy, exciting growth stock with huge upside and dynamic innovation. But that's fine. It's a solid, respectable stock that can serve to be an anchor in any portfolio. That's why I think it's worth buying now and will continue to be a buy after its earnings report.

Should you invest $1,000 in Visa right now?

Before you buy stock in Visa, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Visa wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $634,627!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,046,799!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,037% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025

American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Patrick Sanders has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.