Visa's earnings beat estimates, shares rise

(Reuters) - Visa Inc , the world's largest payments network operator, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and said it expects full-year profit at the high-end of its forecast, as it reaps the benefits of its purchase of Visa Europe.

Visa's shares were up 2.8 percent at $93.70 in trading after the bell on Thursday, after the company also announced a $5 billion share buyback programme.

The company said total payments volume rose 37.2 percent to $1.73 trillion in the second fiscal quarter ended March 31, on a constant dollar basis.

San Francisco-based Visa generates revenue by facilitating credit- and debit-card transactions.

The growth in payments was helped by the addition of Visa Europe, a former subsidiary Visa bought in June in a deal worth as much as $23 billion. Visa Europe accounted for 19.4 percent of total payments volume.

Payment volumes in the United States, Visa's largest market, increased 11.7 percent to $775 billion on a constant dollar basis.

The U.S. economy has seen strong jobs growth and rising incomes in the first three months of 2017, which bodes well for consumer spending - a key economic indicator for payments processors like Visa.

Visa updated its full-year forecast, saying it now expects adjusted profit at the high-end of its forecast for a mid-teens percentage point increase.

Net income fell to $430 million or 18 cents per Class A share in the second quarter, from $1.71 billion or 71 cents per Class A share, a year earlier, reflecting a one-time charge related to the purchase of Visa Europe.

Excluding one-time items, Visa earned 86 cents per Class A share, beating analysts' average estimate of 79 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net operating revenue rose 23.5 percent to $4.48 billion.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)