5 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to British Billionaire Chris Hohn

4. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

TCI Fund Management’s Stake Value: $5.00 billion

Percentage of TCI Fund Management’s 13F Portfolio: 11.26%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 142

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a payments technology company based in California. In the fourth quarter, Billionaire Chris Hohn upped his stake in the firm by 16% to comprise of more than 23 million shares valued at $5 billion. This holding represented 11.26% of TCI Fund Management’s total portfolio.

On February 9, Erste Group analyst Hans Engel upgraded Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’, whilst noting that the firm’s transaction volume should increase this year as international travel continues to recover.

In Q4 2021, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) recorded a revenue of $7.06 billion, which outperformed estimates by $265 million and also showed an increase of 24.1% year-on-year. EPS stood at $1.81 which also beat consensus estimates by $0.11. 

142 hedge funds were long Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, with aggregate positions worth $29.3 billion. In comparison, 143 hedge funds reported bullish bets on the company shares a quarter ago, with combined stakes worth $26.16 billion.

Wedgewood Partners, an investment firm, talked about many stocks in its Q1 2022 investor letter and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was one of them. 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.”