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Empresas y finanzas

Visa reports better-than-expected quarterly profit


    (Reuters) - Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit card company, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as a strengthening U.S. job market and cheaper gasoline prices encouraged people to spend.

    VISA (V.NY)s net income rose to $1.57 billion, or $2.53 per Class A share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.41 billion, or $2.20 per Class A share, a year earlier.

    Total operating revenue increased 7 percent to $3.38 billion.

    Analysts on average had expected earnings of $2.49 per share on revenue of $3.34 billion for the company's first fiscal quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Visa's shares were up 4.4 percent at $258.95 in extended trading on Thursday.

    The company, a Dow Jones Industrial Average component, recorded cross-border volume growth of 8 percent on a constant dollar basis, down from 12 percent in the year-earlier quarter.

    Total volume increased to $1.90 trillion from $1.84 trillion, helped by a better holiday shopping season in the United States.

    Visa earns money from both the volume and value of transactions using its cards.

    Up to Thursday's close, Visa's shares had gained about 15.5 percent since it last reported earnings on Oct. 29.

    (Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Ted Kerr)