Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- MasterCard Inc., the world’s second- largest credit-card network, rose 6.3 percent in New York trading after the company beat analysts’ profit estimates by raising the price of processing international purchases.
Profit excluding a settlement charge was $1.87 a share in the fourth quarter, beating the $1.62 average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 14 percent to $1.2 billion, MasterCard said, and price increases mostly tied to cross-border transactions made up more than half of the rise. The network climbed $8.81 to $148.96 at 9:42 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander is cutting expenses to reach profit targets jeopardized by the U.S. economic slowdown. MasterCard, which collects fees to shuttle payments between financial institutions, may miss a 20 percent to 30 percent net income growth goal this year after the effect of a stronger dollar is factored in, the company said in November.
“Despite the significant economic turbulence around the world, we were able to achieve excellent fourth-quarter operating results while maintaining a healthy balance sheet,” Selander said today in a statement.
Visa Inc., the largest credit and debit card network, rose 8.6 percent to $53.34 in New York trading after saying yesterday fiscal first-quarter profit rose 35 percent to $574 million. MasterCard had 36 percent of the U.S. credit and debit-card market in 2007, compared with San Francisco-based Visa’s 51 percent and 12 percent for New York-based American Express, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter based in Carpinteria, California.
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