Visa (V) Competitors

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and media sentiment.

Which has better valuation & earnings, MA or V?

Visa has higher revenue and earnings than Mastercard. Visa is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mastercard, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mastercard	$28.17B	16.50	$12.87B	$13.89	36.69
Visa	$36.80B	16.84	$19.74B	$9.92	33.64

Do analysts prefer MA or V?

Mastercard currently has a consensus target price of $607.96, indicating a potential upside of 19.29%. Visa has a consensus target price of $355.84, indicating a potential upside of 6.64%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Visa.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mastercard	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	23 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87
Visa	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	21 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82

Does the media prefer MA or V?

In the previous week, Visa had 1 more articles in the media than Mastercard. MarketBeat recorded 57 mentions for Visa and 56 mentions for Mastercard. Visa's average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat Mastercard's score of 1.34 indicating that Visa is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mastercard	43 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Visa	50 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MA or V?

Visa received 835 more outperform votes than Mastercard when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.34% of users gave Visa an outperform vote while only 73.07% of users gave Mastercard an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mastercard	Outperform Votes 1555 73.07%	Underperform Votes 573 26.93%
Visa	Outperform Votes 2390 80.34%	Underperform Votes 585 19.66%

Which has more risk & volatility, MA or V?

Mastercard has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Visa has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MA or V more profitable?

Visa has a net margin of 54.27% compared to Mastercard's net margin of 45.71%. Mastercard's return on equity of 188.47% beat Visa's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mastercard	45.71%	188.47%	30.05%
Visa	54.27%	54.79%	22.62%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in MA or V?

97.3% of Mastercard shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.2% of Visa shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Mastercard shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Visa shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is MA or V a better dividend stock?

Mastercard pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Visa pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard pays out 21.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Visa pays out 23.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Mastercard has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Visa has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Visa is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Mastercard and Visa tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.