All eyes will be on the Visa (V) IPO today

Overcoming the jitters that have battered many of the lenders that issue its cards, Visa Inc. sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece late Tuesday to raise nearly $18 billion and complete the most lucrative initial public offering in U.S. history.

The price topped the range of $37 to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago, reflecting high demand to own a piece of a company that's promising earnings growth of 20 percent despite a credit crunch that's choking the U.S. economy.

The San Francisco-based company will make its debut with a market value of about $36 billion.
Based on the strong demand among money managers who wanted a piece of the IPO, Einhorn anticipates Visa shares will quickly soar above $50.

Visa already dwarfs its closest competitor, MasterCard Inc., whose stock has more than quintupled since that company went public less than two years ago.

But analysts say Visa priced its IPO more aggressively than MasterCard, making it less likely that its stock will appreciate as dramatically in the months ahead.

Visa processed 44 billion transactions totaling $3.2 trillion in 2006, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter. MasterCard handled 23.4 billion transactions totaling $1.9 trillion in the same year.