Mastercard Beats Q1 Estimates

reported better-than-expected profit for the first quarter on Wednesday. The Purchase, New York-based company posted quarterly earnings of $1.02 billion, or $0.89 per share, compared to $870 million, or $0.73 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue climbed 2.7 percent to $2.23 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.80 per share on revenue of $2.28 billion. The average estimate among 68 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.82 per share and revenue of $2.33 billion. Its worldwide purchase volume climbed 11.8 percent to $783 billion on a local-currency basis. Processed transactions gained 12 percent to 11 billion, while cross-border volumes increased 19 percent. Gross dollar volume surged 12 percent to $1.1 trillion in terms of local-currency. Operating expenses dropped around 1 percent to $879 million. During the first quarter, the company repurchased around 11 million shares of Class A common stock at a cost of around $947 million. "We are managing well, despite a mixed economic environment and challenging currency situation," said Ajay Banga, president and CEO, MasterCard. "The underlying fundamentals of our business remain unchanged, driving our ability to sign new agreements with Citi and Itaú, work with digital giants and expand our support of the merchant community. This, combined with our focus on costs, allowed us to continue to deliver solid results in the first quarter." Mastercard shares rose 1.60 percent to $91.67 in pre-market trading.