4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Visa

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 120,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, credit card giant Visa (NYSE: V) has earned a respected four-star ranking. While five-star stocks have been the best performers, our data has shown that four-star stocks still outshine the market by a significant margin and shouldn't be taken lightly; conversely, low-rated stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Visa's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Visa facts

Headquarters (founded)	San Francisco, California (1958)
Market Cap	$40.26 billion
Industry	Data Processing & Outsourced Services
TTM Revenue	$6.26 billion
Management	CEO Joseph Saunders (since 2007) CFO Byron Pollitt Jr. (since 2007)
TTM Return on Capital	8.6%
Competitors	American Express (NYSE: AXP), MasterCard (NYSE: MA)
CAPS members bullish on V also bullish on	Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)
CAPS members bearish on V also bearish on	Citigroup (NYSE: C), General Motors (NYSE: GM)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 439 of the 511 All-Star members who have rated Visa -- some 86% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include betan1 and Guardian21.

Late last month, betan1 wrote that "People will be carrying less and less cash on them as time goes on. This stock is a real bargain right now. Once the economy starts turning, Visa will be one of the firsts to show substantial gains."

In a pitch from one week later, Guardian21 shares that contrarian spirit, writing:

Visa will profit from the long term trend of increasing consumer use of credit and debit cards. It is the dominant competitor in its industry. Along with Mastercard, its business model contains less risk than some of its other competitors since it does not lend. Stong balance sheet, with over 5 billion in cash and about 100 million in debt. Recent pullback provides opportunity to accumulate shares when PEG is under 1.

Copyright © 2008 Universal Press Syndicate.