Shares of Visa (NYSE:V) rose and touched a 52-week high follow the announcement that it has signed a licensing deal with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to include its credit and debit cards in Google’s mobile wallet application. The deal would enable customers with smartphones to add their Visa branded credit, debit or prepaid cards to the Google Wallet application, which will allow consumers to use their smartphones to make purchase. [1] Google announced mobile wallet application in May this year and initially partnered with Citigroup (NYSE:C), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and MasterCard (NYSE:MA). It expects to add Visa, Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) to future versions of Google Wallet.
Mobile payments are seen as the future of the payment industry that will power the growth in number of transactions processed by Visa from 54 billion currently to about 100 billion by the end of the year 2018 by our estimates. Visa also recently acquired Fundamo, a leading provider of mobile financial services, and partnered with UK’s Monitise, a leading provider of mobile money solutions. It is essential for Visa to stay ahead of its competitors in mobile payments if it wants to retain its position as the top payments technology provider.
Our price estimate for Visa stands at $91.40 is about in line with the market price.
See our complete analysis for Visa’s stock.
Notes:- Visa signs deal with Google for mobile wallet, Market Watch [↩]
