I’d look at Wells Fargo (WFC) around $22 and Mastercard (MA) at $152. - Guy Adami

Most have fortresslike balance sheets, too, and are renowned for conservative management. MasterCard (MA), at No. 1 on our list this year, is sitting on $2.3 billion, or roughly $17 a share, in cash -- it has almost no debt -- and reported a 9% rise in first-quarter operating income. Not many companies, including most blue chips, can boast that.

lots of volatility and volume

For MacDougall's take, click here.

Q: Let's talk about a few stock picks. A: One of these is MasterCard (MA). Even though consumer spending has declined, the percentage of transactions completed with plastic continues to rise. For every one of these transactions, whether it involves MasterCard, Visa or American Express, they collect a toll to complete the transaction. While American Express takes on credit risk, MasterCard and Visa have no credit exposure. So even if banks restrict credit-card issuance, consumers will still use debit cards, where MasterCard and Visa are large players. We find MasterCard more attractive than Visa because of its valuation, which is about 16 times this year's profit estimate. The growth of credit- and debit-card transactions versus cash is a secular shift.

Made a blistering start on DJI.

It is also the triage component: Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) are your chosen winners in finance.

I'd forget all the scattered brained bank stocks. In the space only look at Visa [V], Mastercard [MA], Goldman Sachs [GS] and Morgan Stanley (MS). Those are the four horsemen of the financials.

Outperform - Price 161.8 on Feb. 17
by Cowen and Company

We are upgrading MA from Underperform....The combination of positive [credit-card] revenue-growth rates with continued declines in discretionary advertising should continue to help MA expand Ebit [earnings before interest and taxes] margins and generate 20%-plus EPS growth rates this year, while sustaining sector-high, 30%-plus ROIC [return on invested capital] metrics. While in this upgrade, we aren't calling a bottom to the ongoing economic recession, we point to the resilience [of] MA's model....MA trades at 14 times projected [calendar] '09 EPS. Market cap: $21.1 billion.

it's the big 2

people use for spending

Swings up and down

Because I didn't purchase when I should have!

Not priceless

LIKE THIS TOO..

Down...

Not sure people understand this stock for what it is.

visa public issue will crush this.

technicals

Financial