visa ipo

Q: Is there any news on the initial public offering of Visa?

After months of speculation regarding the timing, Visa's IPO appears to be on track.

In early November, Visa's IPO moved forward when the company filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is expected to raise $10 billion, which would make it one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history. The IPO's timing is unknown, but I'd expect to see it in early 2008. Check IPOhome.com for more updates.

Demand for shares of Visa is expected to be strong because shares of top rival MasterCard (MA) have performed so well. Shares of MasterCard have soared more than 300% from their first day closing price of $46. That's a great return for an IPO that priced at $39 a share on May 24, 2006.

Just be careful before jumping into Visa stock. Since MasterCard did so well, there's going to be a mania for Visa shares. Make sure Visa's valuation is reasonable compared with MasterCard's before chasing it.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Exchange Commission | Securities | Visa | MasterCard | IPOs | Quote

As of mid-November, MasterCard's shares had a price-to-earnings ratio of about 30. You certainly wouldn't want to pay more than that for Visa and you'll want to check what MasterCard's P-E is at the time of the IPO. You can get a stock's P-E by putting the company name or stock ticker symbol in any Get a Quote box at money.usatoday.com.