{"id":1081,"date":"2026-05-01T06:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2026-05-01T06:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:28:38","slug":"morgan-stanley-adjusts-visa-stock-price-after-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/?p=1081","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Stanley adjusts Visa stock price after earnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a recurring fear in fintech circles that the ground beneath Visa Inc. could eventually shift. The worry is that a mix of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and AI-driven payment rails might bypass traditional card networks altogether, potentially turning today\u2019s dominance into something that belongs to a pre-digital era. <\/p>\n<p>But Visa (V) just reported a quarter that made that fear look increasingly misplaced.<\/p>\n<p>The 67-year-old payments Goliath posted fiscal second-quarter 2026 results that beat expectations and raised its full-year outlook, sending the stock up 5% in a single session. But the more interesting story wasn&#8217;t the beat. It was where the growth was coming from. <\/p>\n<p>Value-Added Services grew 27% year over year. Stablecoin settlement volumes ran at a $7 billion annualized rate. Also, the core banking deal with Wells Fargo surprised even Visa&#8217;s most attentive analysts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The durability of Visa&#8217;s network remains underappreciated,&#8221; Morgan Stanley said in its note, raising its price target to $415 from $411 while maintaining its overweight rating.<\/p>\n<p>Visa CEO Ryan McInerney has consistently argued that every new payment technology ultimately runs through Visa&#8217;s infrastructure rather than displacing it. Quarter after quarter, the company keeps producing evidence that he&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n<h2>Visa&#8217;s second-quarter 2026 results delivered across every major dimension<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Net revenue of $11.2 billion, up 17% year over year, or 16% on a constant-dollar basis<\/li>\n<li>GAAP net income of $6.0 billion, or $3.14 per share<\/li>\n<li>Non-GAAP net income of $6.3 billion, or $3.31 per share<\/li>\n<li>Share repurchases and dividends of $9.2 billion<\/li>\n<li>Board authorization of a new $20 billion multi-year share repurchase program<br \/>\nSource: Visa Second Quarter 2026 Results and Morgan Stanley Report\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>U.S. spending volume accelerated 130 basis points to 7.4% growth in the quarter, according to Morgan Stanley&#8217;s note. Also, it was previewed by bank card data, and is likely to have received some temporary benefit from tax refunds.<\/p>\n<p>Cross-border volume growth came in at 9% in April, with a one-point drag from Ramadan timing that management said would have been 10% otherwise. U.S. inbound travel and cross-border e-commerce are both improving, and demand for FIFA World Cup travel is building as a visible near-term catalyst.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Stanley raised its fiscal year 2026 and 2027 estimates following the print.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FY26 adjusted EPS raised to $13.07 from $12.88<\/li>\n<li>FY27 adjusted EPS raised to $14.86 from $14.71<\/li>\n<li>FY26 net revenue growth forecast raised to 13.3% from 11.3%<br \/>\nSource: Morgan Stanley Report\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Visa Inc. raised its full-year 2026 guidance to low-double-digit to low-teens net revenue growth and low-teens EPS growth, up from prior low-double-digit forecasts. <\/p>\n<p>The upgrade was driven by stronger Value-Added Services performance, higher currency volatility assumptions, and World Cup-related client demand, according to Morgan Stanley.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAyOTcyMzA5\/amsterdamnetherlands-june22018websiteofvisavisa.jpg?io=1&amp;profile=rss\" height=\"675\" width=\"1200\"><figcaption>Morgan Stanley set a $415 price target on Visa Inc. by applying a 27x P\/E multiple to its CY27 adjusted EPS estimate of $15.37.<\/p>\n<p>Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Visa&#8217;s VAS grew 27%, and Morgan Stanley says the market still underestimates them<\/h2>\n<p>The most structurally important number in Visa&#8217;s quarter wasn&#8217;t a volume figure. It was the Value-Added Services growth rate.<\/p>\n<p>The key number in Visa Inc.\u2019s quarter wasn\u2019t volume. It was Value-Added Services (VAS). VAS grew 27% year-over-year and now makes up about 30% of revenue, spanning fraud tools, advisory, and marketing services.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Stanley&#8217;s conviction is that VAS demand is actively increasing, not plateauing. Clients are seeking more fraud tools and World Cup-related marketing programs, and the pipeline of use cases continues to expand. The firm is confident Visa can sustain VAS growth in the 20%-plus range over the medium term, its note confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>A signal of how far VAS ambitions now extend came from an unexpected source. Wells Fargo plans to adopt Pismo (Visa\u2019s acquired core banking platform), signaling a broader push into core infrastructure beyond initial expectations, the firm said.<\/p>\n<h2>Visa stablecoin and agentic commerce positioning turn disruption risk to growth opportunity<\/h2>\n<p>The fintech disruption narrative around Visa typically focuses on what could displace the network. Visa is increasingly focused on owning the infrastructure that new payment technologies run on instead.<\/p>\n<p>The stablecoin strategy is the clearest example. Visa has built its approach around three pillars. The stablecoin-linked card on-ramps and off-ramps, settlement and money movement, and blockchain infrastructure. In fact, the numbers are beginning to reflect the investment, according to Morgan Stanley&#8217;s note.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>160<\/strong> stablecoin-linked card programs globally as of Q2<\/li>\n<li>Stablecoin card volumes up <strong>200%<\/strong> year over year, driven by spending in emerging markets<\/li>\n<li>Stablecoin settlement annualized run-rate reaching <strong>$7 billion<\/strong>, up more than 50% from Q1<br \/>\nSource: Morgan Stanley Report\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Critically, stablecoin economics closely mirror traditional card economics for Visa, meaning the revenue model is familiar, and the growth is largely incremental.<\/p>\n<p>On agentic commerce, Visa Inc. launched Intelligent Commerce Connect, an AI-focused payments on-ramp set for June 2026, and introduced a CLI tool enabling payments without traditional checkout. <\/p>\n<p>Morgan Stanley said Visa\u2019s vast network, 175M+ merchants, 5B credentials, and 900M daily transactions give it a hard-to-replicate edge in agentic payments.<\/p>\n<h2>What Morgan Stanley&#8217;s $415 Visa target means for you<\/h2>\n<p>Morgan Stanley set a $415 price target on Visa Inc. by applying a 27x P\/E multiple to its CY27 adjusted EPS estimate of $15.37, implying earnings-led compounding with modest multiple expansion as stablecoin and agentic opportunities are seen as incremental.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The firm argues Visa remains underappreciated, citing its near-undisruptible network moat, steady spending across income groups, no weakness in lower-income cohorts, and a FIFA World Cup demand wave through 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite geopolitical and macro volatility, Visa\u2019s fiscal Q2 reinforces its safe-haven growth status, continuing to monetize global spending across evolving payment formats.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Related: Visa CEO sends blunt message on AI and blockchain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>#Morgan #Stanley #adjusts #Visa #stock #price #earnings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a recurring fear in fintech circles that the ground beneath Visa Inc. could eventually shift. The worry is that a mix of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and AI-driven payment rails&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[1754,457,479,100,480,91,782],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-adjusts","tag-earnings","tag-morgan","tag-price","tag-stanley","tag-stock","tag-visa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}