Visa Clears Key Benchmark, Hitting 80-Plus Relative Strength Rating

As inflation lingers, many shoppers are delaying payments via various plans or using their credit cards. Visa saw both earnings and sales growth rates rise last quarter from the prior quarter. It's projected to report 11% higher earnings to $2.66 per share this quarter on an 8.4% rise in revenue to $9.4 billion.

On Thursday Visa (V) stock got a Relative Strength Rating rating upgrade, with a jump from 80 to 83. One important metric to look for in a stock is an 80 or higher RS Rating. Decades of market research reveals that the best stocks typically have an RS Rating of at least 80 in the early stages of their moves. Visa just hit that mark.

Additionally, it's well above its 200-day, 50-day and 21-day lines.

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Visa Ratings Outstanding Overall

Among its other key ratings Visa has a 91 EPS Rating, putting it in the top 9% of stocks for recent and long-term profit growth. Even better, it sports a 96 Composite Rating, showing overall strength. Additionally, Visa has a B Accumulation/Distribution Rating on an A+ to E scale. The B rating show big funds are fairly eager buyers.

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Visa stock dropped to a 252.70 low at the end of July. From there it's climbed 27% to close at 320.91 Thursday, including a 4.8% gap-up on Nov. 6 in high volume, a few days after it reported better than expected quarterly earnings. The last four quarters its EPS rose 11%, 20%, 12% and 16%. Revenue growth accelerated from 9% to 10%, 10% and 12%.  See if the stock forms a new pattern or follow-on buying opportunity like a three-weeks tight or pullback to the 50-day or 10-week line.

Among Leaders In Highly Ranked Industry Group

Visa is expected to report its latest results on or around Jan. 23.

Visa earns the No. 6 rank among its peers in the 36-stock Finance-Card/Payment Processing industry group. The group itself ranks a strong No. 24 out of the 197 industries IBD tracks. Shift4 Payments (FOUR), Paymentus (PAY) and Discover Financial Services (DFS) are among the top 5 highly rated stocks in the group.

The unique IBD Relative Strength Rating tracks market leadership by using a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score that shows how a stock's price action over the trailing 52 weeks matches up against that of all other stocks.

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