MasterCard's Stock Jumps After Profit, Sales Beat Expectations

Shares of MasterCard Inc. climbed 2.1% in premarket trade Thursday, after the payments processing and credit card company beat second-quarter profit and revenue expectations. For the quarter ended June 30, earnings rose to $983 million, or 89 cents a share, from $921 million, or 81 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 96 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 90 cents. Revenue rose 13% to $2.69 billion from $2.39 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $2.59 billion, as processed transaction increased 14% to 13.7 billion and gross dollar volume rose 11% to $1.2 trillion. "With last week's VocaLink announcement, we will expand our capabilities beyond core card-based solutions into a broader set of transactions and payments," said Chief Executive Ajay Banga. The company said on July 21 that it was buying 92.4% of the bank-owned technology company for $920 million. MasterCard's stock has lost 3.7% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 6%.