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The shift away from cash stands to help payments companies over the long term.
Angel Garcia/Bloomberg
It’s been a tough year for
Visa
and
Mastercard
as payment volumes took a hit with the pandemic. But bullish trends may be building—pointing to gains for the card stocks, along with online payment companies like
PayPal,
according to several Wall Street analysts.
Signs of life in cross-border travel could boost Visa’s (ticker: V) earnings by 10% next year relative to current estimates, according to Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev. Cross-border travel accounted for 7% to 9% of Visa’s total payment volume pre-Covid, he estimates, but it has fallen more than 65% this year as borders closed and travel slumped.
The tide could be turning, though. Checks at 14 online travel and airline websites point to a slight uptick in demand, Dolev says. It’s too early to say how fast cross-border