Mastercard Profit Beats as Easing Pandemic Curbs Lift Cross-Border Spending

Mastercard Profit Beats as Easing Pandemic Curbs Lift Cross-Border Spending
A 3D printed Mastercard logo is seen in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration taken on Sept. 20, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)
Reuters
10/28/2021
Updated:
10/28/2021

Mastercard Inc. reported better-than-expected profit for the fourth consecutive quarter on Thursday, as easing of pandemic-era restrictions drove a healthy recovery in cross-border spending and lifted domestic spending.

Shares were up nearly 3 percent at $345 in premarket trading.

After more than a year of staying homebound, customers have started venturing out for travel, dining, and other social activities, driving up spending volumes at payment companies like Mastercard.

On an adjusted basis, Mastercard earned $2.37 per share, shattering analyst estimates of $2.19 per share on average, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company said gross dollar volumes, the dollar value of the transactions processed, jumped 20 percent to nearly $2 trillion. Cross-border volumes, a metric that tracks spending on its cards beyond the country of issue, were up 52 percent from last year when the pandemic hit travel demand.

Net revenue rose 30 percent to $5 billion in the quarter.

Peers American Express Co. and Visa Inc. also reported profits that beat estimates earlier this month, fueled by a boom in spending.