3 Reasons Mastercard and Visa Are Still Buys

Since Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA)and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V)went public, shareholders have enjoyed returns that have destroyed the S&P 500index. In May 2006, Mastercard had an initial public offeringwith the stock valued at a split-adjusted $3.90 per share.Two years later, Visa followed suit and went publicat a split-adjusted price of $11 per share.

In the past 10 years, Mastercard's and Visa's stocks have almost mirrored each other, returning 685% and 667%, respectively, while crushing the market's return of approximately 100% over the same time span.This incredible growth has not slowed down: Over the past year, Visa has roughly tripled the market's returns and Mastercard has almost quintupled it!