Klarman's Baupost Group Favors Visa Over Mastercard
Elite investors are quietly buying Visa over Mastercard, according to recent 13F filings. Seth Klarman's Baupost Group opened a new position in Visa during Q1 2026, disclosing 701,355 shares valued at $211,978,000. This stake represents roughly 4.14% of the disclosed portfolio and suggests that Klarman sees Visa as more durable than Mastercard.
Visa's most recent quarter showed net revenue of $11.63 billion, up 14.4% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $3.32 against a $3.23 consensus. This was the fourth consecutive EPS beat for Visa.
Mastercard also had a strong quarter, but its forward P/E ratio is higher than Visa's at around 29x compared to Visa's 24x. This suggests that investors are paying more per dollar of forward earnings to own Mastercard.