VISA’S QUARTERLY profit rose 16 per cent, slightly beating expectations, as consumer spending ramped up and the company processed more transactions abroad.
But the days of outsize returns on low expenses appear to be ending for Visa, the world’s largest credit and debit card processing network. It failed to beat expectations by as much as investors have come to expect, and it has yet to fully assuage investor concerns about how it will cope with new US regulations that may reduce future revenue.
Shares fell about 1 per cent in after-hours trading, after closing 2 per cent higher at $72.09.
Visa said it expects operating margins to remain around 60 per cent for 2011, in what investors said signalled a shift from its earlier days of high revenues and relatively low expenses.
Total operating expenses rose 17 per cent in Visa’s fiscal first quarter, ended December 31st, from a year earlier to $872 million (€639 million), while total revenue rose 14 per cent from a year earlier to $2.2 billion. Personnel expenses rose, while Visa spent less on processing and on marketing.
