Visa Posts Loss on Litigation Charge

Visa (V Quote) shares were falling nearly 1.9% in late-day trading, after the credit card network posted a big loss for its fourth fiscal quarter.

The San Francisco-based firm recorded a loss of $356 million, or 45 cents a share, for the three months ending Sept. 30. In the year earlier quarter, before it went public, the company posted a pro forma loss of $1.6 billion, or 96 cents a share.

The loss was based on $1.1 billion of litigation reserves the company had set aside as part of its initial public offering in March. The settlement pertains to an ongoing lawsuit between Visa, MasterCard (MA Quote) and Discover Financial Services (DFS Quote). Discover and American Express (AXP Quote), which had previously settled with Visa and MasterCard, alleged the two companies had conspired to keep them from entering the bank-issued credit card space.

Discover said late Monday that a settlement had been reached. Visa will pay a majority of the $2.75 billion, while MasterCard will pay $856 million of the settlement. MasterCard said on Monday it plans to take a charge of $515.5 million as part of its third-quarter results.

Excluding litigation reserves and restructuring charges, among other things, Visa beat analysts' estimates. The firm's net income for the final quarter of its fiscal year was $448 million, or 58 cents a share. Net operating revenue was $1.7 billion for the quarter fueled by "service fees, data processing fees and international transaction fees."

Analysts had pegged Visa would make 56 cents a share on $1.68 billion of revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates generally exclude special items.