Visa's first earnings release is here -- should you buy this young stock?

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported earnings for the very first time since its IPO last month -- and I'll bet there are a lot of you out there who are, like myself at the moment, kicking yourself for not buying the card-entity's stock!

As for the Q2 numbers, Visa saw its revenues decline by 50% to about $1.5 billion. Net income on an adjusted basis was $0.52 per share for the Class A common stock. Looking at the cash-flow statement, we see that cash from operating activities for the six-month period was used instead of generated, to the tune of $252 million -- last year's operational cash flow was much better at a positive $386 million. There was a big hit on the cash-flow statement from litigation effects.

Here's my reaction to the earnings -- from a pure individual-investor viewpoint, I personally don't think the stats are so important from this first report. Visa has just begun its life as a stock; it has incredible brand equity, and if you look at how MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) shareholders have benefited from that company's float, I'd be surprised if something similar doesn't happen with this one over the next couple years. I meant to buy Visa on its first day of trading, but I didn't; how wrong I was. The shares closed today at $75.63, but are trading down 4% as of this writing in the post-hours. Management gave some guidance in the press release -- revenues should grow the next few years somewhere between 11% and 15%, earnings per share should see solid 20% appreciation, and annual free cash flow will be at least $1 billion (this assumes that litigation reimbursements from litigation escrow are added back). I like the guidance, I like the strength of the stock, I like that people use Visa cards like crazy -- I want to watch, maybe even pray, for pullbacks on this stock.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.