Lazard Capital Maintains a 'Buy' on Visa (V); Raises PT to $86 After Meeting With Management

November 5, 2009 11:14 AM EST

Lazard Capital maintains a 'Buy' rating on Visa (NYSE: V), raises price target from $82 to $86.

Lazard analyst says, "We recently met with Visa CEO Joe Saunders, CFO Byron Pollitt, and Global Head of Prepaid Brian Triplett. In our view, management’s comments were consistent with their remarks on the recent F4Q earnings call. They remain optimistic that the worst is behind them and that economic conditions will continue to stabilize and improve. We remain bullish about the secular trends and growth opportunities in the industry, especially on the international side...We expect to hear more about these growth areas in early March at Visa’s investor event in SF, but the company highlighted prepaid, mobile, ecommerce, and commercial as future opportunities. There appears to be no rush by Visa Europe to exercise its put option...We are raising our price target from $82 to $86, which is 23x our CY10 EPS estimate of $3.70 as we expect some modest multiple expansion in a stable to improving economic environment. We expect investors to remain willing to pay a premium multiple for Visa given the brand, overall strength of the business model, and projected earnings growth of 20+%. Risks include greater regulatory scrutiny, new technologies, consolidation, and economic weakness."

To see more analyst ratings on V Click Here.

Visa, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates retail electronic payments network worldwide.

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