Visa Inc. (V) Key Takeaways Solid top line beat and raise with solid momentum into 2027

Equity Research 28 July 2026 | 9:55PM EDT

Visa Inc. (V): Key Takeaways: Solid top line beat and raise with solid momentum into 2027

Bottom line: Results were solid, with a 2% revenue beat and a 3% EPS beat. Despite Will Nance | a slight miss in cross border (on lower currency vol), revenues came in nicely ahead, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

driven by strong volumes that were 2% ahead of consensus and strong yield Jack Evans | dynamics on the back of pricing tailwinds and incremental VAS adoption. On this last Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

point, while the company acknowledged the outperformance in the quarter due to Chandru Ravikumar | marketing services around the World Cup, the company was careful to emphasize the Goldman Sachs India SPL momentum in VAS from 1) greater adoption of the company’s network services, which we believe carry higher margins and are a higher quality source of growth (relative to marketing) and 2) the accelerated momentum in the company’s consulting and analytics business. Finally, we also thought the message on volumes was relatively optimistic against investor concerns for decelerations into Q3, with the company seeing 1) 9% U.S. volume growth in July, one of the strongest growth rates we have seen in the post-COVID time period (and only down slightly from a strong June number that benefited from day count tailwinds) and 2) much stronger cross border volumes than people were expecting, driven by resilient travel spending (despite middle east tailwinds) and much stronger growth in cross border e-commerce related spending. Looking ahead, we also believe numbers are in a good place based on Visa’s comments about the upcoming fiscal year, where Visa emphasized the momentum across its business as it heads into its typical full year planning process. We believe this implies limited downside to 2027 guidance, which Visa will provide next quarter. Putting it altogether, Visa is outperforming its long term 8-10% revenue growth framework and growing the bottom line in the mid-teens range, while also trading at the low end of its historical trading range. At ~24x our C2027 EPS estimates, we believe shares screen as attractive, and we remain positive on the momentum into next year.

Quarter results: V reported F3Q26 EPS of $3.32 vs Visible Alpha (VA) Consensus Data of $3.23. Gross revenue for the quarter was ~$16.313bn, up 15% yoy and +2% vs VA consensus, with gross payment volume of ~$4.007tn, 2% above consensus. CC Cross-border volume grew 12% yoy excluding intra-Europe (13% overall). Card Services take rate and Data Processing fee per txn grew ~2%/7% yoy respectively, with International Transaction Revenue growing approximately 6%. Client Incentives came in at ~-$4.680bn, resulting in total net revenues of ~$11.633bn (2% above consensus). Opex was 3% above Street expectations at ~$3.878bn. The topline beat and higher than expected opex resulted in operating income of ~$7.755bn (+2% vs consensus) and adjusted Net Income of ~$6.296bn (+3% above consensus).

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For F4Q26, V expects 1) LDD to low-teens net revenue growth on Non-GAAP nominal-dollar basis, including ~-1% acquisition impact, 2) Non-GAAP opex is expected to grow high-end of LDD (with ~0.5% FX impact and ~-1.5% acquisition impact). This implies roughly $8.0bn-$8.7bn of non-GAAP operating income and 67% operating margin, 3) EPS growth expected to be mid-teens on a Non-GAAP Nominal-Dollar Basis, 4) 19% non-GAAP tax rate, and 5) $80mn of non-operating expense.