Visa, the world's largest payments company, reported a 6 per cent annual increase in its 2023 fiscal first-quarter net profit on higher payment volumes, cross-border transactions and processed transactions.
The net profit of the California-headquartered company jumped to $4.2 billion in the three months to the end of December.
Revenue rose 12 per cent on an annual basis to $7.9 billion, the company said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
The company said it had recorded 52.5 billion processed transactions in the last quarter, a 10 per cent increase over the same period in 2021.
Shares of the company increased 9 per cent over the past year and rose 1.1 per cent to $227.20 in after-hours trading on Thursday.
“We saw stable payments volume and processed transaction growth and a continued cross-border travel recovery,” said Alfred Kelly, Visa’s chairman and chief executive.
“I continue to see a bright future for Visa and believe that we have the right strategy to invest in and capitalise on the opportunities ahead across consumer payments, new flows and value added services,” said Mr Kelly, who will step down from the top post on February 1 and assume the role of executive chairman.
Ryan McInerney, who has been the president of Visa since 2013, will become the new chief executive.
The company’s earnings per share rose 8 per cent to almost $2 in the first quarter. It also returned $4 billion of capital to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends during the October-December period.
Total payments volume in the first quarter surged 7 per cent year on year, while the cross-border transactions increased by 22 per cent on an annual basis.
The company did not disclose the exact value of transactions.
The company’s cash, cash equivalents and investment securities stood at $18.9 billion at the end of the last year.
In the last quarter, Visa repurchased 15.6 million shares at an average price of $198.74 each for $3.1bn. The company had $14 billion of remaining authorised funds for share repurchase as of December 31.
Visa’s chairman and chief executive
The company’s operating income in the first quarter rose 6.6 per cent on a yearly basis to more than $5 billion, while operating expenses increased 24.6 per cent annually to more than $2.8 billion.
On January 24, the company's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.45 a share payable on March 1 to all holders of record as of February 10 this year.
Visa did not issue earnings guidance for the current and future quarters.
