Visa Credits Debit Cards for Earnings Beat

Visa (V Quote) posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings in its first full quarter as a public company, fueled by strong growth in its international credit and debit card businesses.

The San Francisco-based firm made $422 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with a pro forma profit of $299 million in the year-earlier period. Visa had its initial public offering in March. Prior to that the company was not required to report earnings according to GAAP rules.

On an adjusted basis, which reflects a normalized tax rate and excludes certain litigation, restructuring and purchase amortization, Visa made $457 million, or 59 cents a share. Revenue came in at $1.6 billion, led by expanding payment volumes and processed transactions, along with service and data-processing fees.

Analysts on average expected the electronic-payments firm to record a profit of 48 cents a share on revenue of $1.55 billion in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

"We are very pleased with our fiscal third-quarter results as Visa continues to lead and benefit from the global migration to electronic payments while expanding our business worldwide," CEO Joe Saunders said in a statement. "Despite a challenging economic environment in the United States and a softening in traditional credit card spending, the strength of Visa's debit business drove solid growth in the region.

"The company's strong financial performance and double-digit increases in payments volume and transactions in this current economic environment are further proof of the resiliency of our network business model," he continued.