Mastercard reported quarterly results on Jan. 29, 2020.Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Mastercard Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday as customers spent more on its cards during the U.S. holiday shopping season, boosting fees for the world’s second-largest payment processor.
The company’s gross dollar volume, the dollar value of transactions processed, rose 12 per cent to $1.73 trillion in the fourth quarter.
U.S. retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, restaurants and online, rose every month in the fourth quarter helped by a strong holiday shopping season, while wage gains and the labor market remained on solid footing.
Around 29.38 billion transactions were processed, a 19 per cent increase from a year earlier. The gain was led by a 9 per cent rise in the United States and a 28 per cent jump in Europe.
Net revenue rose 16 per cent to $4.41 billion, edging past analysts’ estimates of $4.40 billion.
Adjusted net income rose to $2.0 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.6 billion a year earlier.
On a per share basis, the company earned $1.96 per share, while analysts had expected a profit of $1.87 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Shares of the company were up 1 per cent in premarket trading.