Earnings season is upon us and it is time for investors to position their portfolios to take advantage of upcoming quarterly releases. With such a shaky market right now, there are many sectors that should probably be avoided but a few bright spots still remain. One such area to watch is the consumer segment and companies that help to facilitate spending. A great name to go for this earnings season here is undoubtedly Visa (V – Analyst Report).
Visa in Focus
Visa doesn't really need an introduction as it is a global payments technology company and DJIA component with a market cap over $150 billion. What you may not know is that Visa is well-positioned to profit heading into the final part of the year and that the company's stock has already been outperforming the S&P 500 for much of 2015. And if we look to recent earnings estimate revisions, there is plenty of reason to think this trend will continue.
For both the current year and next year time frames, we only see revisions higher for Visa stock. And for the current quarter, the most accurate estimate is ten cents higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate suggesting that there is great optimism for this security heading into earnings season.
And why wouldn't there be? Visa has shown a great ability to beat earnings estimates and has actually beaten or matched expectations in each of the last four quarters by an average of 7.7%. Visa actually has an amazing track record in this regard as the company hasn't seen a miss at all in earnings season over the last five years.
But best of all, Visa has a quarterly earnings ESP of over 16%. When investors combine this with a buy ranking, we see earnings beats over 80% of the time. And with Visa reporting earnings a little less than a month from now this could be a great time to take a closer look at this stock.
Bottom Line
With rising earnings estimates and a positive earnings ESP, Visa appears well-positioned this earnings season. So if you are looking for a solid choice to make an earnings-related trade, definitely take a closer look at this payment technology behemoth as it could be a large cap ready to surge heading into the holiday season.
