MasterCard Profit, Revenue Tops Expectations

By Joshua Jamerson 

MasterCard Inc. profit grew 21% in the latest period, as card companies have been trying to attract new customers and increase transactions.

Results easily beat Wall Street's expectations, and shares rose 1.9% to $105.61 in premarket trading.

Purchase, N.Y.-based MasterCard said transactions rose 18% during the quarter as cross-border volumes climbed 12%. Those factors were partly offset by higher rebates and incentives.

MasterCard is expanding from traditional physical credit and debit cards as its customers move to digital formats. MasterCard is expanding its digital payment platform, Masterpass, to let shoppers use the service on their mobile phones at store checkout terminals, a rival service to Apple Inc.'s Apple Pay and a number of other mobile-payment products.

Like its main rival Visa Inc., MasterCard charges fees to financial institutions for transactions that travel over their networks. Visa on Monday said earnings rose on growth in payments volume and processed transactions.

In all, MasterCard reported a profit of $1.18 billion, or $1.08 a share, up from $977 million, or 86 cents, a year prior. Revenue rose 14% to $2.88 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 98 cents in per-share profit on $2.75 billion in sales.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2016 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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