Visa Inc. (V) is having a very good Thursday, and the reason is pretty straightforward: Bank of America Securities thinks the stock has been sleeping on the job and just upgraded it from neutral to buy.

What's Driving the Upgrade

Analyst Mihir Bhatia set a $382 price target on Visa, pointing to some legitimately impressive numbers. The company is posting high growth across the metrics that actually matter: earnings-per-share, revenue, and operating margins.

Here's where it gets interesting. Bhatia notes that Visa is one of just six companies in the entire S&P 500 that managed to pull off more than 10% revenue growth, double-digit EPS growth, and operating margins above 50% over the past year. Even better? It's one of only two companies that has delivered all three of those metrics every single year since 2021. That's not just good performance, that's consistency.

The Stablecoin Question

Bhatia also thinks Visa is well-positioned to handle the evolution from traditional card-based payments to stablecoins. His reasoning makes sense: merchants (who are Visa's actual customers) will "continue to prioritize seamless checkout," regardless of what's happening under the hood.

Valuation and Litigation Risks

Another piece of the puzzle is valuation. The stock is currently trading at 22 times forward earnings, which the analyst called "compelling" relative to peers. Yes, there's a looming $38 billion settlement between Visa, Mastercard, and payment system merchants hanging over everything. But Bhatia points out that Visa has a solid track record of navigating litigation without taking meaningful hits to the business.

"Following recent underperformance, we believe Visa shares offer very attractive return potential," the analyst wrote to clients.

The numbers back up the bullish case. The company has beaten expectations for both quarterly revenue and profits for the past five quarters straight.

Price Action: Visa shares were up 4.98%, trading at $341.96 Thursday.