We recently compiled a list of the 13 Best Forever Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) stands against the other forever stocks.
State of The Market in The Wake of The CPI Report
The first month of 2025 was an interesting one, with inflation rising faster than expected, giving another motivation for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged. The consumer price index, a comprehensive measure of expenses in goods and services throughout the US economy, increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for January, bringing the annual inflation rate to 3%. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the CPI increased 0.4%, bringing the 12-month inflation rate to 3.3%, higher than the projections of 0.3% and 3.1%, respectively. According to Josh Jamner, investment strategy analyst at ClearBridge Investments, the report spells the end of the Fed’s rate-cutting cycles:
“The ‘wait and see’ Fed is going to be waiting longer than anticipated after a red-hot January CPI inflation report. This report puts the final nail in the coffin for the rate cut cycle, which we believe is over.”
In addition, policymakers are also keeping a watch on the White House in the wake of President Donald Trump’s advocacy for high tariffs, which might boost prices and make it more difficult for the Fed to reach its goal. Speaking on this, James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, said the following:
“There is no getting away from the fact that this is a hot report and with the sense that potential tariffs run upside risk for inflation the market is understandably of the view the Federal Reserve is going to find it challenging to justify rate cuts in the near future,”
While the consumer price index release is a widely cited inflation gauge, it isn’t the principal metric the Federal Reserve uses. Rather, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure is the personal consumption expenditures price index, which the Bureau of Economic Analysis will publish later this month, although it also monitors the CPI and other comparable pricing indices. In his remarks before the House Financial Services Committee on February 12, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the Fed’s increased emphasis on the PCE measure but acknowledged that “we’re not quite there yet” on inflation, despite the “great progress” that has been done so far.
In such a macroeconomic environment, the notion of acquiring the best “forever stocks” might appear challenging. That said, although investors may gravitate toward riskier options with bigger potential returns, it is crucial to recognize that long-term stock investments have their worth and importance. With this in mind, let’s take a look at some potential forever stocks.
Our Methodology
When it comes to long-term investing, who better to emulate than Warren Buffett, arguably the most well-known investor on Wall Street? To come up with our list of the best forever stocks, we began by evaluating Buffett’s stock portfolio, focusing on stock holdings that had been in his portfolio for at least 5 years. Next, we looked at the number of hedge fund investors linked with each stock using Insider Monkey’s database of 900 funds in the third quarter of 2024. The following names are ranked according to hedge fund sentiments around them.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A close-up of a modern payments terminal with a pile of credit cards on the side.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 165
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is an American multinational payment card service corporation that provides a variety of associated services and products to its customers. The company links about 4 billion account members to over 130 million merchants and 14,500 financial institutions in over 200 countries.
In Q1 2025, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) witnessed overall payment volumes in constant dollars increase by 9%, up from 8% in the fourth quarter of 2024. This increase was mostly because of overseas markets, which jumped by 11%, surpassing the preceding quarter’s growth of 10%. In addition, payment volumes increased by 7% in the United States, above the 5% rise in the fourth quarter of 2024. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) expects net revenue to expand at a high single-digit to low double-digit percentage rate in the second quarter, adjusted for the leap year.
Mar Vista Global Strategy stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“After lagging the broader markets over the last one, three, and five years, we believe Visa Inc.’s (NYSE:V) stock now reflects a more conservative and realistic expectation for future cash flow growth. The electronic transaction toll-taker has long enjoyed a highly defensible network effect that connects global buyers and sellers and scale advantages that keep upstart competitors from disrupting the industry’s economics. At the same time, Visa directly benefits from the secular trend of replacing cash with e-payments. Penetration rates and transaction volumes in developed markets will inevitably slow over the next five years yet we expect Visa revenues to grow 8-10% over our investment horizon. Key value drivers remain global consumer spending growth, e-transaction penetration, “new flows” expansion in areas like business-to-business transactions, and lastly, value-added client service growth.
Visa’s dominant position is reflected in its nearly pristine financials: 68% operating margins, greater than 70% incremental operating margins and only 3-4% capital expenditures as a percent of sales. Awash in excess capital, Visa is one of the more aggressive purchasers of its own stock. Shares outstanding over the last fifteen years have declined by one-third and we expect the company to continue to repurchase 2-3% of shares outstanding annually. Since the 2016 acquisition of Visa Europe, total returns on capital have expanded from 25% to 50% and we expect the metric to approach 100% over the next five years as net operating profits expand roughly 60% on a flat capital base. Overall, Visa should compound per share intrinsic value at 10-13% over the next five years.”
Overall V ranks 2nd on our list of the best forever stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of V as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than V but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.