Mastercard Inc.'s (MA Quick QuoteMA - Free Report) third-quarter 2021 earnings of $2.37 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.72%. The same was up 48% year over year, courtesy of higher consumer spending.

This world’s leading payment network company’s revenues of $4.98 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.54% and were also up 30% year over year.

Gross dollar volume (represents the aggregated dollar amount of purchases made and cash disbursements obtained with MasterCard-branded cards) rose 20% to $2 trillion. Cross-border volumes (a key measure that tracks spending on cards beyond the issuing country) grew 52% on local-currency basis.

Mastercard Incorporated Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Mastercard Incorporated price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Mastercard Incorporated Quote

Switched transactions, which indicate the number of times a company’s products were used to facilitate transactions, were up 25% year over year. This shows that customers used the company’s cards more frequently in the quarter.

Rebates and incentives grew 35%, driven by higher growth in volume and transactions, and new and renewed deals.

Other revenues grew 37% year over year.  This included a 10% increase on acquisitions. Remaining growth was driven, primarily by the company’s Cyber & Intelligence and Data & Services solutions.

As of Sep 30, 2021, the company’s customers issued 2.9 billion Mastercard and Maestro-branded cards.

During the quarter, Mastercard repurchased shares for $1.6 billion and paid out $434  million  worth dividend.

Capital Position (as of Sep 30, 2021)

Total assets of $35.4 billion were up 5.4% from the level as of Dec 31, 2020. Total debt of $13.2 billion was up 9.8% from the level on Dec 31, 2020 level.

Other Business Services Sector Releases

Some other companies in the business services space that already released results are Equifax Inc. (EFX Quick QuoteEFX - Free Report) , American Express Co. (AXP Quick QuoteAXP - Free Report) and Discover Financial Services (DFS Quick QuoteDFS - Free Report) , which beat earnings estimates by 7.6%, 27.53% and 3.51%, respectively.

Zacks Rank

Mastercard carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.