By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com -- Visa (NYSE:V) shares were up by more than 1% in premarket trading Monday following an upgrade by Piper Sandler for reasons ranging from cheaper valuations to quicker recovery in the U.S. economy.
Analyst Christopher Donat upgraded the stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ with a target of $260, an almost 13% hike from the stock’s close on Friday.
Donat said out that the stock looked cheap relative to Mastercard (NYSE:MA), which has outperformed Visa over the past year.
The analyst pointed out that Visa was U.S.-focused and quicker recovery in the world’s largest economy as compared to the rest of the world could flip the valuation dynamics for the world’s largest credit card issuer.
The recovery in the U.S. has been fast, thanks to more than half the population having been vaccinated. Most business has opened up, and barring a few sectors like airlines and cruises, spending is mostly back to pre-pandemic levels.