Even after that decade's worth of outsized growth, patient investors can still grow considerably richer over the long run by buying and holding Visa stock. With more than 80 million merchant locations and approximately 4 billion cards in circulation worldwide, Visa is heavily favored to continue to be the biggest beneficiary of these positive industry trends. Even in a challenging global economic environment plagued by lofty inflation and geopolitical instability, Visa's payment volume edged 7% higher over the year-ago period.