Dow Jones payments giant Visa cleared estimates for fourth-quarter results late Tuesday, prompting shares to surge after hours. Rival Mastercard reports its Q3 earnings early Thursday.
Visa
Visa reported a 16% increase in earnings to $2.71 per share adjusted, outpacing FactSet views for $2.58 per share. Net revenue rose 12% to $9.6 billion, also beating estimates for $9.49 billion.
The company noted that payments volume, cross-border volume and processed transactions remained "relatively stable" throughout the quarter.
Payments volume rose 8% for the fourth quarter, slowing from 9.1% growth last year. Still, payments volume beat expectations for a 6.8% increase.
Processed transactions climbed 10%, while cross-border volumes increased 13%.
Visa guided Q1 2025 net revenue growth in the high single-digits, with low double-digit EPS growth. The company expects full-year revenue to range from the high single-digits to low double-digits. Visa forecasts 2025 earnings grow at the higher end of the low double-digit range.
FactSet expects Q1 earnings increase nearly 12% to $2.69 per share on 10% revenue growth to $9.5 billion.
Visa also increased its quarterly divided by 13% to 59 cents per share.
The results come after the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Tuesday that Visa is planning to lay off 1,400 employees and contractors by the end of the year to streamline its international business. Roughly 1,000 of the eliminated positions are expected to be technology roles, while the remainder will focus on merchant sales and global digital partnerships.
DOJ Lawsuit
Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Justice in mid-September filed an antitrust suit against Visa, alleging that it monopolized the U.S. debit-card market since 2012.
The DOJ claims that Visa illegally hindered rivals with incentive payments to keep financial technology firms to stay out of the market. Visa allegedly punished merchants with higher fees if they routed some transactions to other card networks. Meanwhile, Visa also harmed customers because card fees were passed on in the form of higher prices for goods and services.
Julie Rottenberg, Visa's general counsel, called the lawsuit "meritless," and said the Dow Jones payment provider is ready to defend itself in court.
Visa holds about a 60% share of the debit payments market and earns about $7 billion annually in debit swipe fees, according to the DOJ.
V shares surged 2.3% after hours Tuesday. The stock eased 0.8% during market hours.
Visa stock is trading in a flat base, with a 293.07 buy point. It is also rebounding from its 21-day exponential moving average, with a possible early entry at 285.09.
V shares advanced more than 8% so far this year.
Mastercard
Analysts see Mastercard earnings rising 10.3% to $3.74 per share on 11.2% revenue growth to $7.27 billion.
FactSet forecasts purchase volume rises 9.5%.
Mastercard ticked lower Tuesday, hen gained 0.7% in afterhours trade.
MA stock is trading near record highs, near the top of a buy zone for a 24-week cup base after a mid-September breakout.
Mastercard stock has jumped 19% in 2024.
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