After spending more than a year locked at a mediocre three-star rank, Visa (NYSE: V) has impressed enough top-performing members of our 165,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community to climb up to four stars. A total of 4,607 members have given their opinion on the payment firm, with many offering analysis and commentary to explain their recent optimism.

Shares of Visa and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) have come under pressure in recent months, as investors attempt to gauge the effects of financial reform efforts on their businesses. Both companies have yet to determine the effects of changing regulations on debit card payments. However, Visa's CEO recently said he doesn't expect changes to affect the growth of electronic payments in the U.S., and predicts only a modest earnings impact from the final rules.

Meanwhile, Visa put up strong numbers in its second quarter, showing domestic and international growth. Revenue jumped 23% in the quarter, while operating income grew 38%. While credit card issuers Citigroup (NYSE: C), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have begun to show improvement in their dangerously high credit card payment delinquency rates, Visa and MasterCard have been insulated from troubled consumer debt, since they earn money from transaction fees instead of lending to consumers.

In addition to Visa's solid balance sheet, CAPS members also like Visa's growing global competitive position. The company's recent purchase of online payment provider CyberSource should help it compete with eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal, which handled about 16.5% of U.S. e-commerce transaction last year. Many investors see little threat from AT&T's and Verizon's plans to launch a mobile payment system with Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), even though mobile payments have really caught on in some regions of the world. With Visa's bullish outlook for revenue and earnings growth, most CAPS members like the direction the company is headed.

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