Parkev Tatevosian, CFA on $V (Nov 10, 2026)

The next stock I'm going to highlight as one you can buy now and hold forever is Visa. Visa spent decades building its network, which has now become one of its strongest competitive advantages.

There are over 4 billion Visa cards in circulation, and because so many people own a Visa card, merchants almost always have to accept Visa as a means of payment. Thus, this two-way network represents a huge competitive advantage for Visa.

Imagine the effort any innovator would have to put into building a network like the one Visa has achieved.

Why would a merchant want to switch to a new payment provider? Visa charges a small transaction fee in addition to a small percentage of the total transaction value for its services that help facilitate transactions and speed up the sale process.

As a merchant, you know that I sell my book on my website parkeftatevosian.com. I accept Visa as a means of payment. She charges me, I believe, 39 cents per transaction plus a 3% fee.

Now, in the overall total of all my operating costs, the amount I pay to Visa represents a very small part. So, if another provider came to me and said, "You should stop accepting Visa and accept our payment method instead, and we will lower the price we charge you compared to what Visa charges."

For me, it wouldn't be worth the time and administrative costs of making this switch, even if they promised me half the cost of a Visa.

This is the extent, and this is just one example of how competitive Visa's advantage is, and how difficult it is for anyone to come along and break into its dominant market share.

I calculated the fair value of Visa stock at $471. The current market price is $423.