MasterCard's Stock Rallies After Profit, Sales Beat Expectations

Shares of MasterCard rallied 2.9% in premarket trade Friday, after the credit-card company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit and sales. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, earnings increased to $801 million, or 69 cents a share, from $623 million, or 52 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. That beat the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of 67 cents a share. Revenue rose to $2.42 billion from $2.13 billion, topping analyst forecasts of $2.39 billion. Processed transactions grew 11% to 11.6 billion, while gross dollar volume rose 13% to $1.2 trillion. "This year is off to a good start with several new wins, as well as renewals of some important customer agreements, with more in the pipeline," said Chief Executive Ajay Banga. The stock has lost 2.1% over the past three months through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.3%.