Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.91, surpassing the consensus estimate of $0.88, and increasing 4.6% year-over-year (YoY).
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When consumer spending is healthy, MasterCard and Visa tend to do well, and going into Thursday’s third-quarter financial report, MasterCard investors hoped that their company would be able to bounce back after disappointing performance during the second quarter raised concerns about its future growth trajectory.
On a per-share basis, the Purchase, New York-based company said it had profit of 86 cents. The stock has climbed 32 percent in the last 12 months. MasterCard posted revenues of $2.5 billion matched our estimates. Processed transactions grew 12 per cent to 12.3 billion, while cross-border volumes grew 16 per cent. “We continue to see double-digit growth in both volume and transactions in most of our regions around the world”, said Ajay Banga, MasterCard’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement.
During the quarter, MasterCard spent $930 million on share buyback. The MasterPass digital wallet is created to integrate digital payments more seamlessly into the checkout process, while EMV chips and biometrics have started to enhance security.
Excluding the special item, total operating expenses increased 1%, or 5% when adjusted for currency, to $1.1 billion during the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
That is up from $US1.02 billion in the same period a year ago.
Analysts had projected 87 cents a share in profit and $2.54 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.
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MasterCard’s effective tax rate was 28.2% in the third quarter of 2015, versus a rate of 28.5% in the year ago quarter.
