VOL. XCIV, NO. 247
WIDE MOAT STOCKS & COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Visa Inc. V
NYSEPayments and financial technologyFinancials to Jun 30, 2026 · Updated Oct 5, 2026
Moat ranks
Balance sheet
| $B | Sep 30 | Jun 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | 17.2 | 12.4 |
| Securities | 1.8 | 1.4 |
| Long-term securities | 1.0 | 0.2 |
| Restricted cash | 7.8 | 6.4 |
| Debt | 25.2 | 23.9 |
| Net cash | -5.2 | -9.9 |
| Equity | 37.9 | 35.2 |
- Debt / EBITDA
- 0.84×
- Debt / equity
- 0.68×
- Leases (9/30/25)
- $913M
- Diluted shares
- 1,898M
- Book value / share
- $18.53
- Price / book
- 19.3×
- Net cash / share
- −$5.22
- Market cap
- $678.0B
- Enterprise value
- $688.0B
Per-share record
Key indicators
| Indicator | Latest | Vs year ago | Last 8 quarters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | 14.4% | +0.1 pts | |
| Operating margin | 59.1% | -1.6 pts | |
| FCF margin | 52.8% | -9.3 pts | |
| Capex / revenue | 3.6% | -0.6 pts | |
| Processed transactions | 71.66B | +10% | |
| Payments volume growth | +10% | +2 pts | |
| Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe growth | +12% | +1 pts | |
| Client incentives | $4.7B | +18% | |
| Value-added services revenue | ~$3.8B | +36% |
Margins and growth from reported quarters; company KPIs as reported in results releases.
About V
Visa connects cardholders, merchants and banks through a global payment network. Its single Payment Services segment earns fees for network access, processing and cross-border activity, plus risk, acceptance, issuing and advisory services.
- Two Sided Network
Nearly 5B Visa credentials, more than 175M merchant locations and nearly 14,500 financial-institution clients reinforce one another: credentials are more useful with broad acceptance, while merchants and issuers value access to more spend and endpoints.
- Clearing Settlement
VisaNet is embedded in issuer, acquirer, processor and merchant authorization, clearing, settlement, dispute and risk workflows.
- Interoperability Hub
Visa Direct and Visa as a Service extend connectivity beyond Visa-branded cards across bank accounts, wallets and domestic schemes.
- Jun 30, 2026 · Tax benefit +$18M
The same change in U.S. taxation of foreign earnings produced a further $18 million deferred tax benefit. This raised profit without increasing network demand; the nine-month benefit totals the earlier $333 million and this quarter.
- Dec 31, 2025 · Tax benefit +$333M
A change in U.S. taxation of certain foreign earnings produced a $333 million deferred tax benefit. It raised reported profit without increasing transaction volumes or cash receipts.
- Sep 30, 2018 · Full year · Tax charge −$1.1B
U.S. tax reform imposed a $1.147 billion transition tax on foreign earnings. The charge changes the year of tax recognition rather than payment-network demand.
- Sep 30, 2018 · Full year · Tax benefit +$1.1B
The lower U.S. corporate tax rate reduced existing deferred tax liabilities and produced a $1.133 billion non-cash benefit. This almost offset the transition tax in reported annual earnings.
- Sep 30, 2017 · Full year · Tax charge −$1.5B
Reorganizing Visa Europe and other legal entities removed deferred tax balances and caused a $1.515 billion non-cash tax charge. This explains much of the gap between operating profit and reported net income.
Ownership
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On this page
Financial record
| Fiscal year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | TTM | Trend | Change 2016–25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per share ($) | |||||||||||||
| Revenue | 6.25 | 7.67 | 8.85 | 10.11 | 9.83 | 11.02 | 13.72 | 15.66 | 17.71 | 20.35 | 23.44 | +14.0%/yr | |
| Cash flow | 2.31 | 3.89 | 5.56 | 5.63 | 4.70 | 6.96 | 8.82 | 9.95 | 9.83 | 11.73 | 11.90 | +19.8%/yr | |
| Earnings | 2.48 | 2.80 | 4.42 | 5.32 | 4.89 | 5.63 | 7.00 | 8.28 | 9.73 | 10.20 | 11.90 | +17.0%/yr | |
| Free cash flow | 2.09 | 3.59 | 5.25 | 5.29 | 4.37 | 6.64 | 8.37 | 9.45 | 9.21 | 10.98 | 11.07 | +20.2%/yr | |
| Capex | 0.22 | 0.30 | 0.31 | 0.33 | 0.33 | 0.32 | 0.45 | 0.51 | 0.62 | 0.75 | 0.83 | +14.9%/yr | |
| Dividends | 0.56 | 0.66 | 0.82 | 1.00 | 1.20 | 1.28 | 1.50 | 1.80 | 2.08 | 2.36 | 2.63 | +17.3%/yr | |
| Book value | 13.63 | 13.68 | 14.60 | 15.27 | 16.29 | 17.18 | 16.66 | 18.58 | 19.29 | 19.28 | 18.53 | +3.9%/yr | |
| Diluted shares (M) | 2,414 | 2,395 | 2,329 | 2,272 | 2,223 | 2,188 | 2,136 | 2,085 | 2,029 | 1,966 | 1,898 | -2.3%/yr | |
| Totals ($B) | |||||||||||||
| Revenue | 15.1 | 18.4 | 20.6 | 23.0 | 21.8 | 24.1 | 29.3 | 32.7 | 35.9 | 40.0 | 44.5 | +11.4%/yr | |
| Operating income | 7.9 | 12.1 | 13.0 | 15.0 | 14.1 | 15.8 | 18.8 | 21.0 | 23.6 | 24.0 | 27.0 | +13.2%/yr | |
| Net income | 6.0 | 6.7 | 10.3 | 12.1 | 10.9 | 12.3 | 15.0 | 17.3 | 19.7 | 20.1 | 22.6 | +14.4%/yr | |
| Free cash flow | 5.1 | 8.6 | 12.2 | 12.0 | 9.7 | 14.5 | 17.9 | 19.7 | 18.7 | 21.6 | 21.0 | +17.5%/yr | |
| Buybacks | 7.0 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 8.7 | 11.6 | 12.1 | 16.7 | 18.3 | 21.4 | +11.3%/yr | |
| Dividends | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 5.0 | +14.7%/yr | |
| Net cash | -3.1 | -3.1 | -0.8 | -2.5 | -3.8 | -0.8 | -1.8 | 1.6 | -3.1 | -5.2 | -9.9 | −$2.1B | |
| Margins & returns (%) | |||||||||||||
| Operating margin | 52.3 | 66.2 | 62.9 | 65.3 | 64.5 | 65.6 | 64.2 | 64.3 | 65.7 | 60.0 | 60.7 | +7.7 pts | |
| Net margin | 39.7 | 36.5 | 50.0 | 52.6 | 49.7 | 51.1 | 51.0 | 52.9 | 55.0 | 50.1 | 50.8 | +10.4 pts | |
| FCF margin | 33.5 | 46.9 | 59.3 | 52.3 | 44.4 | 60.2 | 61.0 | 60.3 | 52.0 | 53.9 | 47.2 | +20.5 pts | |
| ROIC | 16.3 | 26.5 | 27.5 | 31.5 | 28.9 | 32.6 | 39.3 | 44.4 | 43.5 | 44.9 | 49.2 | +28.6 pts | |
| Return on equity | 18.2 | 20.4 | 30.3 | 34.8 | 30.0 | 32.8 | 42.0 | 44.6 | 50.4 | 52.9 | 64.2 | +34.7 pts | |
| Stock pay % of revenue | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 2.1 | +0.8 pts | |
| Capex % of revenue | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.5 | +0.2 pts | |
Change uses 2016 and 2025 only: compound annual growth for amounts, points for margins and returns, and the change in amount for net cash. A dash means no 2016 base. Trend shows the fiscal years.
Moat
Moat scorecard
- Strength
- Confidence
- Structure
- Oligopoly
- Durability
- durable
- Trajectory
- stable
- Pricing power
- strong
- Payment Services100.0%3 claims
Moat claims
- Applies to
- Payment Services
- Confidence
- Durability
- durable
- Trajectory
- stableas of Oct 5, 2026
Nearly 5B Visa credentials, more than 175M merchant locations and nearly 14,500 financial-institution clients reinforce one another: credentials are more useful with broad acceptance, while merchants and issuers value access to more spend and endpoints. The 38.47% global-brand transaction share and 10% Q3 processed-transaction growth provide external and current persistence checks.
Q3 FY2026 processed transactions grew 10% and credentials grew 8%, but client incentives grew 18%; broader use sustains the network while clients claim part of the gain.
- Processed transactions71.66B+10%
- Payments volume growth+10%
- Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe growth+12%
- Client incentives$4.7B+18%
- Value-added services revenue~$3.8B+36%
- Annual value-added services revenue~$10.9B+24%
- Payment credentials~5.00B+9%
- Merchant acceptance locations≥175,000,000+17%
- Account-to-account and real-time rails bypass card-network economics
- Routing mandates, interchange limits and antitrust remedies weaken network rules
- Issuers, merchants and co-brand partners demand larger incentives or shift volume
- Wallets and bank apps intermediate customer ownership and routing choice
- FilingMastercard Q2 2026 Form 10-Q: net revenue and switched transactions in April-JuneJul 30, 2026
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - network participantsNov 6, 2025
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - merchant acceptanceNov 6, 2025
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - issuer relationshipsNov 6, 2025
- Applies to
- Payment Services
- Confidence
- Durability
- durable
- Trajectory
- stableas of Oct 5, 2026
VisaNet is embedded in issuer, acquirer, processor and merchant authorization, clearing, settlement, dispute and risk workflows. Continuous availability, certification, integrations and settlement reliability make global replacement costly even though regulation can require local processing or alternative routing. These integrations support the processing advantage alongside the benefit of widespread card acceptance.
Visa processed 71.662 billion transactions in Q3 FY2026, up 10%; the rail remains heavily used, while mandatory routing and fee oversight constrain its control.
- Processed transactions71.66B+10%
- Routing, scheme-processing separation and domestic on-shore processing mandates
- Operational, cyber, data-integrity or settlement failures
- Alternative payment architectures bypass card authorization and settlement
- Regulatory access rules commoditize parts of the processing stack
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - VisaNet functionNov 6, 2025
- FilingVisa Inc. Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q - processed transactionsJul 29, 2026
- Applies to
- Payment Services
- Confidence
- Durability
- medium
- Trajectory
- stableas of Oct 5, 2026
Visa Direct and Visa as a Service extend connectivity beyond Visa-branded cards across bank accounts, wallets and domestic schemes. A common integration can reduce client effort across endpoints, but this newer network-of-networks position is less entrenched and more substitutable than the core card rail, so its advantage is smaller than that of the core card network.
Visa Direct processed more than 12.5 billion transactions in FY2025 and services revenue rose 33% in Q3 FY2026, but competing bank and stablecoin rails leave broader connectivity more contestable than card acceptance.
- Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe growth+12%
- Value-added services revenue~$3.8B+36%
- Annual value-added services revenue~$10.9B+24%
- Annual Visa Direct transactions≥12.50B+25%
- Visa Direct partners≥650+18%
- Open banking, RTP and stablecoin networks connect endpoints without Visa
- APIs and orchestration become standardized and switching costs decline
- Governments favor domestic rails and restrict cross-border data or processing
- Acquired platforms remain difficult for clients to use together
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - network-of-networks endpointsNov 6, 2025
- FilingVisa Inc. 2025 Form 10-K - domestic rail integrationsNov 6, 2025
Profile change log
- Oct 5, 2026 · analyst revision
Documented comparable Class A share counts, all restricted cash, the acquisition cash adjustment, recurring legal and restructuring costs, the Visa Europe acquisition and major tax distortions so the financial history can be read against the business.
- Oct 5, 2026 · business change
Added Visa's August 3 agreement to buy BioCatch for $2.4 billion cash and the July 30 UK fee-governance directions. The acquisition remains pending; the rules constrain future pricing decisions.
- Oct 5, 2026 · analyst revision
Corrected the Nilson source date from the June 2025 measurement period to its December 22, 2025 publication date; kept the reported 38.47% global-brand purchase-transaction share and added a shared global payment-network market profile.
- Oct 5, 2026 · analyst revision
Verified the single Payment Services business and its three moat claims; added stable trajectories, the investment debate and management. Kept the sector, industry and moat strengths unchanged because the business and evidence still support them.
Industry & peers
Peer map
Global payment networks and related services
Global general-purpose card networks, their authorization, clearing and settlement services, and related money movement, fraud, issuing, acceptance and advisory services. Issuer lending, bank interchange income, cash payments and the total value of money transferred are outside network revenue; domestic schemes and account-to-account rails are important alternatives.
- Visa
- Mastercard
- UnionPay
- American Express
- JCB
- Discover/Diners Club
| Stocks | Moat | Gross m. | Op. m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V | 100 | – | 60.7% | |
| Industry median | 10 | 73 | 53.8% | 33.6% |
| Sector median | 49 | 73 | 61.3% | 34.1% |
| All stocks median | 398 | 76 | 52.9% | 19.6% |
Moat medians cover every stock. Margin medians count only stocks with collected numbers and need at least three.
Drivers & risks
- Cash-to-digital migration and online commerce can add recurring transactions even when overall consumption grows slowly. Merchant acceptance and issued credentials reinforce each other.
- Consumption, employment and business spending strongly drive nominal payment value. Moderate inflation can increase value-based fees, while transaction counts show whether actual use also grows.
- International travel, ecommerce and trade support cross-border fees. This activity is more cyclical than domestic essential purchases and is sensitive to border restrictions and consumer confidence.
- Banks and merchants buy fraud, identity, acceptance and advisory services to raise approval rates and control losses. Demand supports service cross-selling but attracts specialist competitors and requires investment.
- Real-time payouts, bank-account connectivity and stablecoin settlement can expand a network's role beyond purchases. Higher rates increase the cost of prefunding for clients; faster settlement can reduce that burden, while lower rates ease credit conditions and spending.
- Account-to-account payments, domestic schemes, open banking and stablecoins can bypass card fees. Wallets may use cards today while shifting control of payment choice and routing away from networks.
- Interchange rules, antitrust actions, merchant steering and scheme-fee oversight can constrain network terms and pricing. Regulation is a strong structural risk even when reported transactions keep growing.
- Large issuers, acquirers and merchants can bargain for higher incentives or move portfolios to competing networks. Gross fee growth does not show how much the network keeps.
- Recession, travel disruption, tariffs and geopolitical restrictions can reduce purchases and cross-border activity. A stronger reporting currency reduces translated revenue; exchange-rate volatility can also change currency-conversion fee income.
- Cyber incidents, fraud, outages and client settlement failures can damage trust or require liquidity. Skilled staff, software and data-centre spending drive costs more directly than commodities; acquisitions can add integration costs, amortization and execution risk.
- An integrated issuer/network such as Amex also bears card credit losses, deposit repricing and regulatory capital requirements. Those lender exposures should be assessed separately from network volume and fee competition.
Bulls & bears
Can Visa keep enough of digital payment and service growth after client incentives, alternative routing and regulation to sustain its network economics?
Arguments
What to watch
- 1Processed transactions, constant-dollar payments volume and cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe
- 2Client incentives and net revenue compared with transaction growth
- 3Visa Direct transaction use, services revenue and regulatory changes to pricing or routing
Next check: Review FY2026 fourth-quarter results and the annual report when published, then the UK pricing-governance rules due at the end of November 2026.
Sources: company filings and dated sources collected for Find My Moat; market cap as of Oct 2, 2026. Not investment advice.
Free to reuse, commercially too, with a credit link. See the data license.
Moat Score 100/100 by <a href="https://www.findmymoat.com/stocks/XNYS:V">Find My Moat</a> (as of September 2026)Request update
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