5 Best American Stocks To Buy in 2022

3. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 142

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is an American multinational financial services corporation that facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world. Despite the lingering impact of the global pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the California-based payment processing giant saw its purchase volumes increase by 17% on a year-over-year basis to $2.78 trillion during Q2 2022.

As per its earnings report, the company’s fiscal Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $1.79 easily topped the consensus of $1.65, while the net revenue for the quarter came in at $7.19 billion, outpacing the consensus estimate of $6.82 billion.

On April 27, Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette raised the price target on Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) to $284 from $279 and maintained an Overweight rating on its shares. The analyst was encouraged by the continued signs of travel recovery as the company’s cross-border travel volumes accelerated significantly, causing him to increase his EPS estimates by 2% for FY22 and FY23 following the company’s quarterly report.

According to Insider Monkey’s Q4 data, 142 hedge funds held long positions in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), with collective stakes exceeding $29 billion. Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management is the biggest shareholder of the company, with a position worth $5 billion.

Wedgewood Partners, an investment firm, mentioned Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q1 2022 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“Visa continued to benefit from strong consumer spending as well as a recovery in crossborder payment volumes, more recently driven by the return of travelers. While the emergence of the “Omicron” variant of COVID early in the quarter posed a risk to this travel recovery, it proved short-lived, with most of Europe, North America, and Latin American reengaging in cross-border travel. Visa continues to extend its network to all comers. By processing over $10 trillion in volume per year, Visa has unparallel scale and, as a result, can sell this scale to its customers at very attractive economics. For example, “FinTech” businesses will often charge customers upwards of 3-5% to transact, while Visa takes mere basis points on most transactions, despite enabling service levels historically reserved for only the largest financial institutions. After adding to Visa late last year, we are most pleased that Visa is back to one of our top 5 holdings.”