Visa Earnings: Mixed but Still Solid

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed Thursday. The company had $0.69 in earnings per share (EPS) on $3.57 billion in revenue, which compares to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $0.68 in EPS on revenue of $3.62 billion. The same period from the previous year had $0.63 in EPS on $3.38 billion in revenue.

Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, at the end of December 2015 was 11% over the prior year at $1.3 trillion. At the same time, cross-border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was 4%.

Total processed transactions were 19.0 billion, an 8% increase over the prior year.

Visa repurchased 25.7 million shares of common stock for $2.0 billion, and there is $5.8 billion remaining in the current authorization.

In terms of guidance, the company continues to expect annual net revenue growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit range and EPS growth in the low-end of the mid-teens range on a constant dollar basis. Consensus estimates call for EPS of $2.86 and $15.07 billion in revenue for the fiscal full year.

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Charlie Scharf, CEO of Visa, commented on earnings:

We continue to be pleased with our financial performance given the uneven global economy and the ongoing negative effects of the strong U.S. dollar. While we continue to see relatively strong payments volume growth, these factors have meaningfully reduced our cross-border volume and revenue growth. While these headwinds do not appear to be abating in the short-term as we had hoped, the fundamentals of our business remain strong and our long-term growth trajectory remains intact as we navigate through this uncertain environment.

On the books, cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investment securities were $24.8 billion at the end of the quarter.

Shares of Visa closed Thursday at $69.34, with a consensus analyst price target of $86.83 and a 52-week trading range of $60.00 to $81.01. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 3.5% at $71.74 in the after-hours trading session.