Service fees for Mastercard are negotiated and calculated as a percentage of global dollar volume. Data processing fees are known as “switching fees,” which are a small, fixed cost per transaction charged to the issuer. Both Visa and Mastercard earn the majority of their revenue from service and data processing fees, but the two companies characterize these fees differently and have their own fee structures. Service fees are charged to the issuer and based on card volume. The objective of this article was to show that both Visa and Mastercard are excellent choices for (dividend growth) investors. In terms of risks, I consider Visa to be the lower risk investment when compared to its competitor.

MA generated $6.41 billion in net income from $33.58 billion in assets. MA’s return on asset ratio was 19.09% ($6.41B / $33.58B) in 2020. V and MA have very similar growth rates as V’s 5-year revenue increase was 52.82% with an average annual growth rate of 9.84% while MA’s was 52.28% and 10.13%. On the 3-year side, V grew its revenue by 19% and had an average annual growth rate of 6.28% while MA grew its revenue by 22.44% with an average annual growth rate of 7.73%. V also had less of a decrease in both overall revenue loss and percentage loss in 2020 than MA.

• However, Mastercard has a larger mix of international credit cards, which might serve as a headwind due to the potential for slower growth in some of those markets.
• While these three companies are all extremely similar at their base, they also have major differences.
• V is generating $4.46 billion more in net income and is generating similar growth rates from a larger starting point.
• American Express is more like a bank because, in addition to operating a payments network, it also lends money to consumers on its credit cards.
• For Visa, the first-quarter ROIC was 19.3%, while it was 35% for Mastercard.

Its return on invested capital is also significantly higher than Mastercard’s, signaling a better allocation of capital. Neither company sports much of a dividend, choosing to return capital through share buybacks instead. Visa emphasized at the KBW Payments FinTech Conference on February 23, 2021 that “we’ve seen a real shift from cash to Visa debit cards at the point of sale” in calendar year 2020. The rapid technological innovations and the recovering economy are driving the growth of the credit services sector. So, the credit card space is expected to continue growing in the upcoming months, benefiting V and MA.

Does Capital One have Visa or Mastercard?

Since much of the investment to build out the network was made decades ago, Visa’s business is incredibly profitable now. Between 2013 and 2022, the company averaged an operating profit margin of 65.5%. You would be hard-pressed to find many companies with operating profit margins this high. The good news for investors is that competition in the industry is light.

• It will most certainly boost the recovery of international travel and spending.
• Even though MA has a smaller asset base they are more efficient in generating revenue from their assets.
• So, credit card giants Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) should benefit.
• Then, it bundles them up in handy Investment Kits that make investing simple and – dare we say it – fun.

Do you fear stepping into a new trade after the stock has already soared? Plenty of stocks have an annoying habit of tumbling following big run-ups. While these three companies are all extremely similar at their base, they also have major differences. I want to begin by pointing out that Visa and Mastercard are more similar to each other than to American Express. Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

If this wasn’t the case, I would give V the point because they are growing at almost the same rate from a larger base which is harder to do but I am astonished that MA retains 100% of their revenue as gross profit. I am splitting the point and giving MA .25 and V .75 in this category. But there’s a reason that the market is willing to assign a higher multiple to Mastercard. It would be foolish not to consider the sheer difference between Mastercard credit card holders compared to Visa. According to an August 2021 article by Shift, 335 million consumers used Visa cards compared to 200 million consumers who own a Mastercard. For comparison, Discover sits at 51.4 million and American Express
AXP
at 47.5 million.

Which stock is the better buy?

Jason Hawthorne has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Mastercard, Under Armour (A Shares), Under Armour (C Shares), and Visa. Mastercard’s adjusted diluted earnings per share fell by -16% YoY from $1.96 in 4Q 2019 to $1.64 in 4Q 2020. But the company’s 4Q 2020 adjusted diluted EPS was still higher than its 3Q 2020 adjusted diluted earnings per a stock-buying strategy to beat inflation and generate income share of $1.60 and market consensus diluted earnings per share of $1.52. Mastercard disclosed in its 4Q 2020 earnings release that its adjusted earnings per share “exclude the impact of gains and losses on the company’s equity investments” and other non-recurring and non-core items. Secondly, Visa has a relatively smaller exposure to international markets outside the US as compared with Mastercard.

TIME Stamp: Choose the best credit card for your needs regardless of the payment network

This allows me to see how much of a company’s assets convert to equity while illustrating how efficiently the organization operates. V has total equity to total asset ratio of 44.75% ($36.21 B / $80.92 B). At the end of 2020, MA’s total equity to total asset ratio was 19.41% ($6.52B / $$33.59B). Gross profit is actually much closer than total revenue in my opinion because of 1 specific factor. While the growth rates are similar MA retains 100% of their revenue as gross profit as there are $0 in costs of revenue.

At the conclusion of my analysis, Visa is the winner

Notably, Visa is expected to grow even faster than its historical averages suggest. Importantly, both MA and V are expected to post faster EBITDA growth. However, V’s EBITDA CAGR of 13.9% by FY26 is expected to edge out MA’s. Meanwhile, MA is expected to post an EBITDA CAGR of 13.1% over the next five years. Both companies are wide-moat businesses and are also highly profitable.

However, investors who can pick only one due to the size and required diversification of their portfolio may want to choose Visa in the near term. Many investors feel that Mastercard (MA -0.88%) is a better investment than Visa (V -0.71%) simply because it’s a little bit smaller and therefore has more room to grow. But as Fool.com contributor Jason Hall explains to colleague Matt Frankel, CFP, in this Fool Trading index Live clip, recorded on Sept. 20, that might not be the only reason. Mastercard’s earnings are projected to jump 26% in FY22 with sales expected to rise 17% as shown in the charts below. On the contrary, MA shares trade at a 34X forward earnings multiple, just above its decade median of 29.5X. Visa stock currently trades at 26.1X forward earnings, and nicely below the decade-high of 44.1X.

The rest of Citi’s card offerings operate on the Mastercard payment network. According to Visa, cards issued through its payment network are accepted in 200 countries and territories around the world. Meanwhile, Mastercard reports acceptance in 210 countries and territories around the world.

Our AI will rebalance your investments on a weekly basis to optimize performance. All you have to do is build a portfolio of Kits and leave the rest of portfolio management to AI. The first metric we can analyze is the net profit margin which is the ratio of profit a company earns to the total amount of revenue that is generated. Visa’s profit margin is 51.1% in 2021 compared to Mastercard’s percentage standing at 46% for 2021. Another key metric is revenue percentage changes year-over-year. Mastercard’s ratio stands at 23.4% growth since last year, and Visa’s percentage growth has been 10.3%.

Generous perks and benefits

Visa’s relatively larger exposure to the US market has been favorable for the company in the most recent quarter. V’s gross dollar volume was up +5% YoY in 1Q FY 2021 (fourth quarter of calendar year 2020), while MA’s gross dollar volume only increased marginally by +1% in the same quarter. This is likely attributable to the stronger recovery in transaction volume in the US as compared to other parts of the world. With the US ahead of many other countries in terms of the progress of the vaccine rollout program, Visa with its larger contribution from the US market could continue to out-perform Mastercard in the near-term. For example, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Credit Card by Citi and the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Credit Card by Citi are both Visa credit cards.

We are confident that Mastercard and Visa will continue to play their leading roles moving forward. Cash transactions are still predominant in the developing economies. Therefore, there are plenty of opportunities for MA and V to capitalize. In the near future at least, analysts generally expect Mastercard to grow earnings per share at faster rate. As the chart above illustrates, the company has a significantly lower forward price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio than Visa.

Hence, we are not so sure whether both players will help investors outperform the market moving forward. MA and V clearly demonstrate the resilience in their business models. Both companies have already surpassed their pre-COVID revenues in their most important segments. The Business of Venture Capital It clearly demonstrates the high quality aspect of their revenue streams. Emerging FinTech players have tried to scrap off MA’s and V’s lucrative revenue streams over the years. Not only have they retained the relevance, they have also increased their influence.