New York, February 18, 2026, 19:16 EST — After-hours.
Visa Inc shares were up 0.25% at $320.30 in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The stock ranged from $316.80 to $322.28 during the session, with about 7.1 million shares traded.
The late move came as investors digested a fresh call from Freedom Capital Markets, which upgraded Visa’s outlook to Buy from Hold, a Nasdaq.com report showed. (Nasdaq)
Europe also sat in the background. ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said the planned digital euro is meant to protect banks and national card schemes, with designs that would financially favor domestic options over international networks such as Visa and Mastercard, according to Reuters. “Preserving the central position of banks in payments,” he said. (Reuters)
On the product side, Visa is still leaning into the stablecoin lane. Dutch payments firm Quantoz said it has partnered with Visa to become a direct Visa “principal member,” allowing it to issue virtual Visa debit cards and act as a “BIN sponsor” — the setup that lets partners issue cards under a sponsor’s bank identification number. Quantoz CEO Arnoud Star Busmann called it “a major milestone,” while Visa Netherlands country manager Jos van de Kerkhof said the network is “focused on enabling innovation across the payments ecosystem.” (Quantoz)
Peers traded firmer into the close. Mastercard rose 1.2% to $527.98 and American Express gained 0.5% to $346.24, leaving Visa as the quieter name in the group on the day.
A filing on Wednesday showed insider activity at Visa as well. President of Technology Rajat Taneja exercised 35,537 performance share awards and disposed of 17,610 shares at $314.08 to cover taxes, leaving him with 250,039 shares held directly, the Form 4 showed. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
Visa last reported quarterly results in late January, when it posted $10.90 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of $3.17 per share as payment volumes rose 8% on a constant-dollar basis, while cross-border volume growth slowed to 12%, Reuters reported at the time. (Reuters)
For investors, the near-term question is whether these are just side stories or the start of something that changes the rails. Visa wants stablecoins and new forms of digital money to run through its pipes; European officials want more domestic control over fees and payment data.
But there is room for the trade to go wrong. Digital-euro timelines are long and political, and stablecoin-linked cards are still a niche. If either track fails to gain scale — or if regulators tighten the rules around fees and routing — Visa’s growth assumptions can get tested quickly.
Next up: investors will listen for anything new when Visa executives Jack Forestell and Chris Newkirk speak at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 3 and the Wolfe Research FinTech Forum on March 11, Visa disclosed. (Visa)
