Visa (NYSE: V) stock enjoyed modest gains on Wednesday, rising 3.5% through 1:30 p.m. ET after beating analyst forecasts for fiscal Q4 2024 earnings last night.

Wall Street had Visa pegged for a $2.58 per share "adjusted" profit on sales of $9.5 billion. Visa reported $2.71 per share, adjusted, and $2.65 per share as calculated, according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), with $9.6 billion in revenue, beating on both top and bottom lines.

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Visa stock by the numbers

Revenues grew 12% year over year in Q4, accelerating Visa's 10% pace of revenue growth over the entirety of the year. GAAP profits grew 17% both in the quarter and in the year, with Visa wrapping up 2024 with a full-year profit of $9.73 per share.

In a note that may be of interest to investors in retail stocks, Visa noted that -- for both the quarter and the year -- its total "volume" of payments (i.e., the dollar value of payments) grew only 8%, despite "processed transactions" (i.e., the number of purchases Visa processed) growing 10%. This suggests that the dollar value per transaction declined year over year, potentially suggesting that consumers are buying cheaper goods and services, a sign of strained consumer purchasing power.

A second interpretation, however, is more optimistic. Gasoline prices are down significantly in 2024, relative to 2023 -- September 2024 gas prices averaged 16% lower than September 2023 prices, for example. Considering how often credit cards are used to buy gas, this fact alone may help to explain why Visa's payment volumes didn't grow quite as quickly as its processed transactions.

Is Visa stock a buy?

Long story short: Visa is doing just fine. This financial giant is not a cheap stock, however.

Visa stock costs a steep 28 times earnings. That's already pricey relative to the 17% earnings growth Visa showed in 2024. With analysts forecasting growth to slow to less than 13% on average over the next five years, Visa stock looks priced for perfection today.

Lucky for its investors, it's also performing pretty perfectly.

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