Mastercard

Mastercard keeps roughly 46 cents of every revenue dollar as profit, one of the best profit rates of any large company anywhere. Revenue grew about 16% over the past year to $8.8 billion in the latest quarter, and earnings per share climbed almost 25%, so the business gets stronger as it gets bigger.

Spending across borders grew 14% as travelers and online shoppers bought from other countries, and payments run through the network hit 46.5 billion in a single quarter. With 3.7 billion cards in wallets worldwide, Mastercard collects a small toll on a huge and growing river of commerce.

New digital dollars called stablecoins could let people send money on the blockchain without touching a card network at all. Mastercard is spending up to $1.8 billion to buy stablecoin firm BVNK to stay in the game, but if those new rails scale faster than expected, the toll booth gets bypassed.

A meaningful chunk of growth comes from international travel, and global tensions cooled cross-border spending late in the quarter. If that disruption drags on, the 14% cross-border tailwind could fade for several quarters and slow the whole growth story.