Visa will IPO around March 19 or 20 under the proposed symbol V for between $37 and $42. The company stands to make nearly $19 billion on more than 400 million shares, which would be the biggest U.S. IPO ever.

Should we buy? Let's take a look.

MasterCard (MA) went public two years ago. Since closing at $46 on its first day of trading, it's gained more than 300%. Its earnings growth is forecasted at 20% annually for the next several years.

In 2006, MasterCard processed 23 billion transactions adding up to $1.9 trillion in spending.

How does Visa compare? Impressively. In 2006, it processed 44 billion transactions adding up to $3.2 trillion.