Comments on: Is VISA a Buy Now?

By: Welcome Globe and Mail Readers!

Welcome Globe and Mail Readers! — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:30:54 +0000

[...] Is VISA ipo a buy now? [...]

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:31:02 +0000

Nicolas – I was talking about the fact that if you bought at the ipo price and sold anytime during the first day – you would have a 30+% profit thereby making you richer…

Disclosure: I have never owned and don’t currently any VISA shares…

By: Around the PF Blogosphere: March 20, 2008 | The Suns Financial Diary | A Personal Finance Blog on Saving and Investing

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:06:01 +0000

[...] For Four Pillars wondered whether Visa (V) is a Buy now. I don’t know, but the hype was certainly there before the IPO and the instant winners are no [...]

By: Nicolas

Nicolas — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:08:47 +0000

“The rich got richer”

Are you so sure? We still don’t know how Visa will do in the future. Remember Tim Hortons? I think that most discussions on this topic are still speculations and, if Visa shows good numbers at a decent price, then we’ll be able to say if we missed of got a good deal.

The rich might have gotten richer or the rich have so much debt that we all hope they had a good deal.

Cheers.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:23:43 +0000

TMW – good point.

AS – I agree – index is the best!

Kyle – I don’t think I’ll be trying your strategy but it sounds interesting.

Mike

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:56:22 +0000

A related but much better investment than an IPOs are spin-offs. Whenever a large company spins off a small division and it starts trading by itself for the first time, they tend to be undervalued because all the large institutions that receive stock in the smaller spin-off will sell it immediately without bothering to do any research.

Ok, not ALWAYS. But more often than not.

By: Aaron Stroud

Aaron Stroud — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:14:59 +0000

Stick with index funds and you too will own VISA stock. It’s easy to get distracted by flashy stocks, ipos, and huge gains big investors make, but low cost index funds are still the best way to invest when you have millions are you disposal.

By: ThickenMyWallet

ThickenMyWallet — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:15:20 +0000

I wonder how much of this is institutions trying to find “safe” places to put their month this quarter?

As much as Google’s IPO was “fairer” just remember that Google has a dual voting class which grants the insiders a disproportionate amount of votes to the shares held. Give with one hand, take with the other…

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:54:09 +0000

It kind of sucks that the “little guys” can’t get in on these deals.

Conversely, if the price jumps up 40%, doesn’t that mean the investment bankers underpriced the issue and shouldn’t get paid??

Cheap – go for it! You can’t lose!

Mike

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:31:13 +0000

I often wonder if a decent strategy might be, after the IPO, to let the stock price run up for a little while, then short sell the stock. You’d obviously lose big on companies like Google, but from what I’ve read you’d make money overall (you’d be betting *against* the IPO).

Too risky for my tastes, but it might work for people with a different risk tolerance than mine.