The Main Points
- JPMorgan raised its price target on Visa from $400 to $450 while maintaining an Overweight rating.
- The move came even after Visa shares dipped on reports that several major banks have explored acquiring a debit payments network that could let them bypass certain interchange-fee rules.
- Analyst Tien-tsin Huang described Visa and Mastercard as "best-in-class compounders" despite a challenging year for both stocks, which are each down roughly 5% over the past three months.
- Huang expects Visa's volume growth to decelerate slightly quarter-over-quarter but says management is likely to describe the macro environment as broadly stable.
- The payments sector overall has faced pressure this year from regulatory scrutiny and questions about long-term competitive threats.