Mastercard beats Wall Street profit estimates as customers spend more

Payments processor Mastercard Inc on Thursday beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit, as growth in overall transactions partially offset the impact of a decline in cross-border volumes.
 

Excluding items, Mastercard reported net income of $1.6 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, or $1.64 per share, compared with $2 billion a year earlier, or $1.96 a share.
 

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $1.51 per share, according to the IBES estimate from Refinitiv.
 

Mastercard's shares jumped nearly 3% in trading before the bell, after the results were announced.
 

A slump in travel demand and discretionary spending has taken a toll on the bottom line of credit card companies and payment processors.

Still, Mastercard managed to drive growth in overall volumes during the quarter. Gross dollar volume growth rose 1% to $1.7 trillion from a year earlier.
 

Cross-border volume, a measure for spending outside the country where the card was issued, fell 29% on a local currency basis in the quarter.
 

Net revenue fell 7% to $4.1 billion, due to the hit from cross-border volumes, but still came in slightly ahead of estimates of roughly $4 billion.