Visa Rocks on Earnings: The Most Important DJIA Stock

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: January 30, 2014 7:30 am

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is out with its fiscal first quarter earnings report. This is the most dominant stock of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) now because of its $217.12 closing price. Because the Dow is a price weighted index, Visa has a weighting of almost 9%.

The credit card processing giant reported revenue growth of 11% to $3.2 billion. Earnings rose 9% to $1.4 billion and operating earnings per share rose 14% to $2.20 per share. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $2.16 per share on $3.13 billion in revenue. Visa also said that the strengthening U.S. dollar impacted net revenues negatively by 2% in the quarter. Total operating expenses were $1.1 billion for the quarter, a 3% increase over the prior year.

The company repurchased 5.5 million shares during the quarter for $1.1 billion. This leaves another $4.2 billion in remaining authorization for buybacks. Cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investment securities were $7.0 billion at December 31, 2013.

Payments volume growth was 11% over the prior year at $1.2 trillion, while the total processed transactions were up 13% to 16.0 billion transactions.

Visa also is targeting guidance for fiscal 2014: net revenue growth in the low double-digits, client incentives as a percentage of gross revenues of 16.5% to 17.5%, annual operating margin in the low 60s, common stock earnings per share growth in the mid to high teens and free cash flow of about $5 billion.

Visa shares were down 1.7% at $217.12 as of Wednesday’s close, versus a 52-week range of $154.14 to $235.50. Shares are indicated up above $220 in early trading.

If Visa’s gains hold up on Thursday morning, this will give an extra cushion for the DJIA.

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