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Mastercard (MA) and Illusions Unite to Enhance Travel Experience

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) has collaborated with Illusions Online to launch a unique platform for Mastercard users, bringing bespoke travel offers. Illusions Online is a leader in enterprise solutions, catering to the hospitality industry.

This move bodes well for Mastercard, which is focused on solidifying its payments network and diversifying it to new customers and locations.The partnership between the companies is a good means of growing business organically.

MA’s payment network contributed 64.5% to its total revenues in 2022, with an increase of 20% year over year. This figure is expected to grow further as Mastercard’s partnerships continue to drive top-line growth.

Mastercard’s partnership with Illusions Online will reward Mastercard customers with exclusive and curated offers from top hotel chains around the world with hefty discounts of up to 30%. These include offers like early check-in, late checkout, status and room upgrades, etc. Hence, these offers will enhance the cardholders’ travel experience and bring new business to the hotel chains.

Mastercard will benefit from higher interchange fees received as more merchants like hotel chains accept Mastercard as a payment means. Interchange fees are the amount Mastercard charges to merchants to reimburse the issuers for costs incurred. As Mastercard is not an issuer but a facilitator, this Zacks Rank #3(Hold) company will receive part of this fee, which is the primary source of revenue.

Owing to the increase in customer travel post the covid period, Mastercard considered it necessary to provide technology-led innovative solutions and support the recovery of the travel sector. This will be executed via an online platform powered by Illusions Online, offering lucrative hotel offers and other value-added services.

The partnership between the two companies is a win-win situation for customers and merchants. Customers will receive lucrative rewards and offers, while merchants will get access to a wider customer base.

Price Performance

Shares of Mastercard have gained 20.5% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 13.8%.

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the Financial Transaction Services industry are Expensify, Inc. (EXFY - Free Report) , Remitly Global, Inc. (RELY - Free Report) and Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) . Each of these companies currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The bottom line of Expensify outpaced estimates in two of the trailing four quarters, while it missed the other two, the average surprise being 18.5%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EXFY’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 28.1%, while the same for revenues indicates growth of 8.8% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. The consensus mark for EXFY’s 2023 earnings has moved 5.1% north in the past 30 days.

Remitly Global’s bottom line outpaced estimates in two of the trailing four quarters while it missed the other two, the average surprise being 10.9%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RELY’s 2023 revenues indicates a 34% rise from the prior-year reported figures.

The bottom line of Visa outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 8.6%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for V’s 2023 earnings indicates a 12.4% rise, while the same for revenues suggests 10% growth from the respective prior-year reported figures.

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