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MasterCard's (MA) Volume Growth Drives Q3 Earnings Beat

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MasterCard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) reported earnings of $1.08 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 98 cents. Earnings were up 19% year over year.

MasterCard posted revenues of $2.9 billion, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.74 billion. On a year-over-year basis, revenues increased 14%.

The upside was primarily driven by an 18% rise in the number of processed transactions to 14.5 billion along with a 12% increase in cross-border volumes. These were partially offset by higher rebates and incentives, primarily attributable to new and renewed business alliances and increased volumes.
 

During the reported quarter, worldwide purchase volume rose 9% year over year – on a constant currency basis – to $882 billion. As of Sep 30, 2016,  2.3 billion MasterCard and Maestro branded cards were issued.

MasterCard witnessed a year-over-year increase of 4%, or 5% on currency adjusted basis, in total operating expenses to $1.2 billion due to continued investments in strategic initiatives, as well as higher data processing costs.

Operating income was $1.7 billion in the reported quarter, up 22% year over year. Interest expenses increased to $23 million from $15 million in the prior-year quarter.

The effective tax rate in the quarter was 27.5% compared with 27.7% in the year-ago quarter.

The company delivered an operating margin of 58%.

Financial Update

As of Sep 30, 2016, the company’s cash and cash equivalents decreased to $5.21 billion from $5.75 billion at year-end 2015. Long-term debt increased to $3.33 billion from $3.27 billion as of Dec 31, 2015. Total equity increased to $6.25 billion from $6.1 billion at Dec 31, 2015.

Share Repurchase Update

During the reported quarter, MasterCard repurchased around 6 million shares of Class A common stock worth almost $591 million.

MASTERCARD INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

MASTERCARD INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | MASTERCARD INC Quote

Zacks Rank and Performance of Other Financial Transaction Service Providers

MasterCard currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Among the other financial transaction service providers that released their earnings results, the bottom line at Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) , American Express Co. (AXP - Free Report) and Discover Financial Services (DFS - Free Report) beat their respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.

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