MasterCard Comes Up Aces With Profit Beat

The electronic payment processor soared past analysts' estimates, as consumers charged more and regions outside the U.S. posted strong growth.

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Publish date:: Apr 29, 2008 9:33 AM EDT

MasterCard

(MA) - Get Report

on Tuesday blew past Wall Street's profit expectations, fueled by strong international growth and consumers' increasing use of plastic in making payments.

The Purchase, M.Y.-based electronic payment processor reported a net profit of $398 million, or $3.01 a diluted share, vs. the consensus estimate of $2 a share, according to Thomson Financial. The company posted revenue of $1.18 billion, a 29% increase from the year ago period. Analysts saw revenue of $1.07 billion.

MasterCard posted a profit of $1.15 a share on revenue of $915.1 million in the first quarter last year.

"We are very pleased with our first-quarter financial results, which reflect the strong positioning of our unified global business," President and CEO Robert Selander said in a company statement. "Regions outside the U.S., such as Latin America and South Asia, Middle East and Africa, are driving significant growth, and cross-border volumes remain healthy as cardholders continue to travel and prefer the use of electronic over paper- based forms of payment."

Worldwide purchase volume grew 15% to $453 billion vs. a year ago.

Rival

Visa

(V) - Get Report

on late Monday also

easily beat analysts estimates

in its first quarter as a public company.

MasterCard and Visa, which only process the transactions and do not hold consumer debt on their books, have fared better than rivals

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

Capital One Financial

(COF) - Get Report