Visa Shares Rise After Confident Report

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The quiet confidence displayed by Visa(V) in its earnings report and subsequent executive conference call with analysts appeared to gladden investors Wednesday.

Shares of the giant credit-card processor rose $2.58, or 3.5%, to $76.48 in hectic late-morning trading. Volume surpassed 8 million shares; the average daily turnover in the name is 5.3 million shares.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Visa reported a before-items profit that beat expectations by two cents and revenue that topped analysts' targets by more than $100 million. The final tally came to $552 million, or 74 cents per Class A common share, in earnings and $1.9 billion in revenue. The company attributed the results to cost-cutting and a jump in the use of debit cards as many recession-stung consumers decide to scissor in half their credit cards.

On the conference call, top Visa executives provided a series of numbers meant to be taken as evidence that business has steadily improved of late and that a recovery is possibly developing. According to the company, for example, the pace of the decline in credit-card volumes has slowed: compared with a year ago, volume fell 9% in the third quarter, 7% in September and 4% through the first three weeks of October, Visa said.

Growth in debit-card volumes, meanwhile, has quickened, expanding 7% in the third quarter from a year ago, 9% in September and 11% through October to date.