What Makes Visa (V) a Good Long-Term Holding?

Meridian Funds, managed by ArrowMark Partners, released its “Meridian Hedged Equity Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The uncertainty surrounding prospective tariff policies weighed on investor sentiment and risk assets in the first quarter of 2025. The fund returned -0.15% (net) in the quarter compared to the S&P 500 Index’s -4.27% return and its secondary benchmark, the CBOE S&P 500 Buy/Write Index’s -3.09% return. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Meridian Hedged Equity Fund highlighted stocks such as Visa Inc. (NYSE:V). Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a payment technology company. The one-month return of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was 4.09%, and its shares gained 34.96% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 10, 2025, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) closed at $370.70 per share, with a market capitalization of $710.139 billion.

Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a global leader in electronic payments, facilitating transactions across an extensive international network. We own Visa for its durable competitive advantages, including a globally recognized brand and vast merchant acceptance network, which together create substantial barriers to entry. We held the position steady during the period.”

Is Visa Inc. (V) the Best Blue Chip Stock to Buy for 2025?

A close-up of a credit card being swiped on a payment terminal, reflecting the company’s payments technology.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is in 6th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 165 hedge fund portfolios held Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) at the end of the first quarter, which was 181 in the previous quarter.  In Q1 2025, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) reported $9.5 billion in net revenue, up 10% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that 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 as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.

In another article, we covered Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and shared RiverPark Large Growth Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.