For years, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. were viewed as somewhat indistinguishable, both benefiting from the same gradual shift toward card-based payments. Recently, however, they’ve started to move apart.
Mastercard MA, +0.81% shares are up 54% over the past 12 months, while Visa V, +0.33% shares are up 36%. And while analysts expect Mastercard to post revenue growth of 20% for its latest quarter, they predict that Visa’s revenue rose by just 7.5%.