Visa Earnings Fare Well, Raises Buyback

Visa Inc.’s (V) fiscal fourth-quarter 2013 (ended Sep 30, 2013) operating earnings of $1.85 per Class A common share were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate but outpaced the prior-year quarter figure of $1.54 per share. Results in the reported quarter included a restructuring reserve of about 4 cents per share.

Net income increased 15.2% to $1.19 billion from $1.04 billion in the year-ago quarter. Including reversal of tax reserves of $627 million or 93 cents per share, reported net income in the year-ago quarter was $1.66 billion or $2.47 per share.

Alongside, total operating revenues for the reported quarter were $2.97 billion, up 8.9% year over year but lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.02 billion. Growth was driven by higher card spending and strong performance across all segments.

Service revenues increased 9.6% year over year to $1.39 billion and are recognized based on payments volume in the prior quarter. All other revenue categories are recognized based on the current quarter activity. Data processing revenues grew 11.7% from the prior-year period to $1.19 billion. Read more.

Visa Inc. PJSC "Ukrsotsbank", UniCredit Bank™, revealed names of winners of "With Visa

Visa Inc. (V), with a current value of $152.58B, started the session at $195.38. During today’s session, V traded between $195.00 to $196.12 with a trailing 52-week range being $138.53 to $205.25. 

V shares are currently priced at 22.98x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 22.52x earnings multiple. And for income investors, the company pays shareholders $1.60 per share annually in dividends, yielding 0.80%.

In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 30 sell-side analysts are looking at $2.16 per share, which would be $0.23 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.02 sequential decrease. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $8.87 is a $1.28 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. Read more.

Visa (V) Leads The Day Higher

The Dow component that led the way higher today was Visa (NYSE:V), which sported a 95-cent gain (+0.5%) bringing the stock to $197.37. Volume for Visa ended the day at 2.7 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 3.3 million shares.

Visa has a market cap of $102.49 billion and is part of the financial sector and financial services industry. Shares are up 31.4% year to date as of Monday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 0.8%.

Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. Read more.

Visa, MasterCard and the Power of Plastic

American Express reported 2013 operating earnings per share of $1.25, comfortably surpassing both the consensus estimate of $1.22 and the year-ago quarter's $1.09 a share. Global card spending bolstered the company's net income from operations by 9% year over year to $1.37 billion, from $1.25 billion in the third quarter of last year. Card spending rose by 7% year over year to $236.2 billion a result of international cards-in-force gains of 7% and cards-in-use gains of 8% in the United States.

American Express registered 6% growth on the top line as due to strong growth in card spending, gains in net interest income and the loan portfolio portfolio. Read more.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) | PJSC "Ukrsotsbank", UniCredit Bank™

Visa Inc. (V), with a current value of $152.58B, started the session at $195.38. During today’s session, V traded between $195.00 to $196.12 with a trailing 52-week range being $138.53 to $205.25. V shares are currently priced at 22.98x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 22.52x earnings multiple.

In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 30 sell-side analysts are looking at $2.16 per share, which would be $0.23 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.02 sequential decrease. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $8.87 is a $1.28 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results.

The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $3.13 Billion. If realized, that would be a 9.82% increase over the year-ago quarter.
In terms of ratings, Argus downgraded V from Buy to Hold (Mar 1, 2013). Previously, UBS upgraded V from Sell to Neutral. Read more.

Visa: Not Where You Want To Be

It's been a while since I've looked at some of the credit card names, but there's been a few interesting events lately that I feel I must discuss. A number of my readers have asked for an update on this space, and so today, I will do that. My primary focus will be on Visa (V), with a comparison to the growth-comparable MasterCard (MA). In the end, my goal is to explain why I wouldn't jump into Visa just yet, and why a short position could actually work right now.

Last week, Visa announced its fiscal fourth quarter results. This report was for the calendar Q3 period, but Visa's fiscal year ends at the end of September. Overall, the results were not that great in my opinion. The company announced a revenue number of $3.02 billion, which missed analyst expectations. If you look at Visa's recent earnings history, you will see that this is the first miss in two years. Read more.

Visa Inc (V) Reports In-Line EPS Of $1.85

Visa Inc (NYSE:V) released its earnings numbers for the three months through September 2013 this afternoon after the market closed on Wall Street. The company showed earnings per share of $1.85 for the quarter on revenue totaling $3 billion. On today’s market shares in Visa trended down and finished the day’s trading at $204.17.

 

In the run up to the release of this afternoon’s earnings report, analysts following the credit card company were looking for earnings per share of $1.85 from the company by consensus. Revenue for the period were expected to come in at $3 billion. Read more.

Visa Could See European Business Slide As Region Recovers

Visa Could See European Business Slide As Region Recovers and 2 Other Dow Movers to Watch

A 3 percent appreciation by the euro in 2013 and the nascent economic recovery in Europe could propel MasterCard Inc. (NYSE:MA) to further outpace its larger competitor, Visa. Analyst Jason Kupferberg at Jefferies Group LLC believes that MasterCard, which stock has outstripped Visa’s this year, could gain another 15 percent in two years. V.