3:06 PM
Visa profit rises 24 percent but shares fall
Addison Ray
By Maria Aspan
NEW YORK | Thu May 5, 2011 4:39pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc's (V.N) quarterly profit rose 24 percent, slightly beating estimates, as increasingly confident consumers spent more money on their credit and debit cards.
But the company's shares fell in after-hours trading, as Visa failed to beat expectations by the wide margins investors were once used to.
The world's largest card processing network on Thursday reported net income of $881 million, or $1.23 per share for its fiscal second quarter ended March 31. That compared to $713 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected Visa to earn $1.20 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company also said its board had authorized a $1 billion share buyback program, which will be in place through April 20, 2012.
Like smaller rival MasterCard Inc (MA.N), which reported a better-than-expected profit on Tuesday, Visa is benefiting from a rebound in consumer confidence after the financial crisis. But it is facing the prospect of increased regulations from the U.S. Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which will restrict the fees merchants pay banks and networks every time a customer buys something with a debit card.
Visa shares closed down 1.3 percent at $78.70 on Thursday and fell about 1 percent in after-hours trading.
(Reporting by Maria Aspan; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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