Street Punishes MasterCard for Revenue Miss; 2Q Net Rises 15%

MasterCard (NYSE:MA) revealed a stronger-than-expected 15.1% leap in second-quarter profits on Wednesday, but the card giant’s revenue growth failed to meet Wall Street’s hopes.

Shares of Purchase, N.Y.-based MasterCard retreated more than 2% ahead of the opening bell in the wake of the revenue miss.

The card giant said it earned $700 million, or $5.55 a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $608 million, or $4.76 a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned $5.65 a share, topping consensus calls from analysts for $5.58 a share.

On the other hand, revenue rose 9% to $1.8 billion, trailing the Street’s view of $1.88 billion. On a constant currency basis, net revenue climbed 13% year-over-year.

MasterCard logged a 15% leap in gross dollar volume on a local currency basis to $890 billion and a 29% surge in processed transactions to 8.5 billion. Cross-border volume jumped 17% last quarter.

“Though economic uncertainties continued to persist, we experienced solid volume and processed transaction growth in all regions as we are focused on driving our global business to expand the reach of electronic payments,” CEO Ajay Banga said in a statement.

MasterCard also disclosed a pre-tax charge of $20 million in the second quarter tied to a $7.25 billion settlement tied to U.S. retailers alleging the fixing of card fees. MasterCard was joined in the settlement with Visa (NYSE:V) and banks that issue credit and debit cards.

Shares of MasterCard slumped 2.88% to $424.00 in premarket action, putting them on pace to eat into a 2012 rally of about 17%. MasterCard’s shares have soared almost 50% over the past 12 months, compared with a 51% leap for Visa.