The Motley Fool Just Ranked the Biggest Financial Stocks. Here's Why the No. 3 Pick Could Be Your Best Investment.

Key Points

• The world's largest financial stocks cover a lot of ground, but banks make up the bulk of the list.

• The best investment opportunity on the list may not be in a bank, but in a company that helps banks.

• Visa's payment processing business is growing strongly, and the stock still looks fairly valued.

• 10 stocks we like better than Visa ›

The Motley Fool just updated its report on the largest financial companies in the world. The list is filled with banks, but there are a couple of other names in the mix, including diversified conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B), which is the No. 1 name on the list. But your best investment opportunity might actually be No. 3, Visa (NYSE: V). Here's why.

What does Visa do?

Visa is what's known as a payment processor. You probably think of it as a credit card company. But it really provides the technology that allows credit and debit cards to be safely used for payments. It connects buyers and sellers on behalf of card issuers, which are often the banks that fill up The Motley Fool's top financial stocks list.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

The interesting thing about Visa is that no single transaction it facilitates is really all that important. That's because it only charges a small fee for the use of its payment network. It's the volume of transactions that flow through its network that's important. In the fiscal third quarter of 2025, payment volume increased 10% year over year, with Visa handling 65.4 billion transactions. On a dollar basis, volume rose 8%.

These are gigantic numbers and highlight just how deeply entrenched Visa is in the financial markets. But it is also deeply entrenched on Main Street. You probably have a credit card or debit card (or both) with a Visa logo on it. Most stores you shop at likely trust Visa to act as an intermediary for them. Don't forget online shopping, where most e-commerce sites allow Visa cards to be used as a safe payment option.

The world is increasingly moving away from paper money and toward card and digital payments. To be fair, Visa isn't the only company benefiting from this trend. But it is one of a very small number of companies that have an effective oligopoly in the space. That's kind of like a monopoly, but the industry dominance is shared across a small number of companies.

Visa is doing well, but it's not shockingly overpriced

As you might expect, Visa is performing well as a business. In the fiscal third quarter of 2025, revenues rose 14%, and adjusted earnings jumped 23%. Investors are aware of how well Visa is doing today, and the stock isn't cheap.

But the real attraction here is that Visa's shares don't look outlandishly expensive, either. Some numbers will help here. The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is currently around 16.8x, versus a five-year average of 17.7x. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 33.5x, compared to a longer-term average of 34.1x.

The P/S ratio and the P/E ratio are not low by any stretch of the imagination, suggesting that value-focused investors might want to watch from the sidelines. But if you are a growth-minded investor, this strongly growing business looks fairly reasonably priced, historically speaking. That puts it into the growth at a reasonable price, or GARP, camp, which is probably a good place to be as the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) flirts with all-time highs.

Visa isn't perfect, but it is attractive

Visa is doing well as a business. Wall Street knows that and has placed a high price tag on the shares. But that price tag isn't ridiculous when you look back at the company's recent valuation history. Given the ongoing success of the business and the likely future of more digital and card payments, long-term investors looking for an investment opportunity among the largest financial companies should probably make Visa their starting point.

Should you invest $1,000 in Visa right now?

Before you buy stock in Visa, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Visa wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,657!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,993!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,057% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025

Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.