Mastercard MA -0.03% and Visa V +0.45% are on the rise, but their shares remain cheap. Investors should seize the opportunity and buy up shares.

It’s hard to overstate the attractiveness of these companies’ businesses. Visa (ticker: V) and Mastercard (MA) operate competing networks that process hundreds of billions of credit, debit and other transactions each year, connecting consumers, businesses and financial institutions. Each receives a percentage of the trillions of dollars flowing through their networks. It doesn’t cost them more to process additional transactions on their existing network – each marginal transaction generates nearly all of their profits.

Simply put, there is no bigger business than payment processing.

Shares of this company have sought-after qualities for any investor and, as a result, have premium valuation multiples. However, they haven’t been so high lately. Even after an 18% gain this year, Visa stock is valued at about 25 times next year’s expected earnings than the average of the past five years (30 times) and above 24 times early 2023 earnings. Compare that to the S&P500SPX +0.85% forward-looking earnings multiple of 19 times today, up from closer to 16 times at the start of the year.