New York, Feb 17, 2026, 10:46 (EST) — Regular session
- Visa shares rose about 1.3% in early trade even as broad U.S. equity ETFs slipped.
- Freedom Capital upgraded Visa to “Buy” and lifted its price target to $375.
- Visa’s Olympics spending readout and a UK push to build a payments alternative kept the sector in focus.
Visa Inc (V.N) shares were up 1.3% at $318.02 in morning trading on Tuesday. Mastercard (MA.N) rose about 0.5% and American Express (AXP.N) gained 0.6%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.P) fell 0.7% and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.O) slipped 1.3%.
The move put Visa’s stock back in motion at the start of a holiday-shortened week, with investors juggling valuation calls against a drumbeat of new headlines around who controls payment infrastructure. Analysts have been looking for signs that payment processors can keep growing volumes without drawing tougher oversight.
Freedom Capital upgraded Visa to Buy from Hold and raised its price target — a broker’s estimate for where the stock could trade — to $375 from $360. Analyst Mikhail Paramonov said the shares look “cheaper” than Mastercard and argued a “share re-rating” could follow if Visa sustains outperformance. (TipRanks)
Visa also pointed to a burst of spending tied to the Olympic Winter Games in northern Italy. The company said overseas Visa cardholder visits rose by more than 60% during the opening weekend, while contactless transactions climbed almost 40% from a year earlier, based on VisaNet data analyzed by Visa Consulting & Analytics. (Visa)
“Over the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony weekend, Italian businesses experienced a year-on-year rise in visitors and purchases,” Antony Cahill, chief executive of Visa Europe, said in the release. Visa said it has built a custom network for the Games and expects Visa payments to be accepted at about 800 points of sale across 13 competition venues. (Visa)
Still, the Olympics have become a flashpoint for Europe’s larger debate about reliance on U.S.-based card networks. Under a sponsorship deal dating back to 1986 and extended to 2032, Visa is the sole card provider at official Olympic stores, Reuters reported, as the European Central Bank pushes for a digital euro by 2029. “We need to address our current dependencies in retail payments and reverse the tide,” ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said, according to the report. (Reuters)
In Britain, big bank bosses are due to meet on Thursday to start work on a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, the Guardian reported. About 95% of UK card transactions run through the two U.S.-owned networks, the paper said, and Visa told the Guardian it welcomed “industry progress on account-to-account payments” — bank-to-bank transfers that bypass card networks. (The Guardian)
Separately, Visa said it created a new sub-region covering Egypt, Libya and Sudan as part of its growth plans, and appointed Malak El Baba as country manager for the three markets. “These markets are at pivotal moments in their digital transformation journeys,” El Baba said in the announcement. (TradingView)
Visa’s business is built on routing payments rather than lending — it earns fees tied to transaction volumes, cross-border activity and services sold to banks and merchants. That makes travel and big events worth watching, especially when consumer demand is wobbling in other parts of the market.
But the risk case is straightforward. If Europe and the UK move from talk to build-out — with new domestic networks, account-to-account options, or rules that squeeze card fees — Visa’s long-term pricing power could take a hit, and any slowdown in consumer spending would show up fast in payment volumes.
The next near-term test is Thursday, Feb. 19, when UK banks are set to hold their first meeting on the proposed “DeliveryCo” alternative — a date traders will watch for details on funding, governance and how quickly a real competitor could emerge.
