Visa Inc. beat market estimates for second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as a rebound in consumer spending after the easing of restrictions due to Covid-19 boosted transaction volumes at the world’s largest payment processor. world.
The results sent Visa shares up 4% in regular after-hours trading and echoed bullish comments from major banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the strength of the US economy in the face of stubbornly high inflation and the war in Ukraine.
Visa said payment volumes rose 17% in the first three months of 2022, with cross-border volumes climbing 38%.
“Impacts of variants of omicron were short-lived and the global economic recovery that began in the middle of last year continued,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Kelly said in the results announcement.
Net income rose to $3.6 billion, or $1.7 a share, from $3 billion, or $1.38 a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected a figure of $1.65 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
your opponent American Express it also reported a sharp rebound in spending last week that helped it beat expectations for quarterly earnings.
Visa’s operating expenses, however, rose 11% to $2.4 billion as it spent more on employee compensation in a tight labor market.