Poll: Visa is Coming this Week. Are You Buying?

Credit card network giant Visa Inc. is scheduled to go public on Wednesday, March 19th with its massive IPO, according to Marketwatch.com. The stock will be traded on NYSE under the symbol V. If Visa indeed goes ahead with its IPO in the middle of the current stock market turmoil, the offering will be the largest ever in US history, valued at $18 billion dollar.

The following is the historical price chart of Visa’s smaller rival MasterCard (MA) since its debut in May 2006. Despite the crisis in the financial market, MA is holding up very well, showing a minor year-to-date loss of 3%, but gaining more than 350% since its IPO.

If the success of MasterCard is any indication, then Visa can be expected to do well in the future. In fact, according to Renaissance Capital,

Visa appears to be coming to market at a sizeable discount to MasterCard based on (its) forward price-to-earnings ratio, which may be because the banks that are receiving most of the proceeds are strapped for cash and are pricing the deal to sell.

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