If You Invested $1,000 In Visa Stock One Year Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Investors who have owned stocks in the last year have generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY total return over the last 12 months is 24.2%. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.

Visa’s Bumpy Ride: One company that has been a disappointing investment in the last year has been credit card giant Visa Inc V .

At the beginning of 2020, Visa shares were trading at $189. By the beginning of March, the stock was down to $186.32 as news of the coronavirus spreading in China prompted concerns about a U.S. pandemic.

When the market crashed during the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak in March, Visa shares dropped as low as $133.93 during the height of the pandemic fears.

When the market bounced in late March 2020, Visa began to rebound as well. The stock was back above $200 by June and back above pre-pandemic highs by early September.

After a pullback to $179.23 in October, Visa finishes 2020 near its highs for the year at $218.73.

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Visa In 2021, Beyond: After a solid 2020, Visa maintained its momentum in the first half of 2021. In January, Visa abandoned its proposed $5.3 billion merger with Plaid following an antitrust lawsuit by the Department of Justice. The stock hit its 2021 high of $252.67 in July.

Unfortunately, the DOJ wasn’t finished with Visa. The stock also took a hit in March on a Wall Street Journal report that the Justice Department was further investigating Visa for potentially anticompetitive practices in the debit card market. The WSJ reported in October that the DOJ is focusing its antitrust probe on Visa’s relationships with other fintech companies, including Stripe, Square Inc SQ and Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL.

In November, the stock took another hit following a disappointing third-quarter earnings report. Just weeks later, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN announced it would stop accepting U.K.-issued Visa credit cards, another blow for Visa investors.

Following the negative headlines, Visa shares have pulled all the way back to $203.72.

Visa investors who bought one year ago and held on have generated a disappointing return on their investment at this point. In fact, $1,000 in Visa stock bought on Dec. 6 2020, would be worth about $929 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

Looking Ahead: Analysts are expecting Visa’s stock to regain its bullish momentum in the next 12 months. The average price target among the 31 analysts covering the stock is $276, suggesting 35.5% upside from current levels.