Visa (V) shares moved higher Friday after the world's biggest credit card company and payments company posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings thanks in part to a surge in cross-border spending amid the ongoing travel boom.
Dow component Visa earned $2.18 per share over the three months ending in December, the group's fiscal first quarter, topping the Street consensus forecast of $2.01, per share, as group revenues jumped 11.8% to a Street-beating $7.94 billion.
Cross border spending was up 22%, Visa said, with payments volume up 7% on a constant-currency basis.
"Visa's performance in the first quarter of 2023 reflects stable domestic volumes and transactions and a continued recovery of cross-border travel," said CEO Al Kelly, who moves to the role of executive chairman next month to make room for incoming boss Ryan McInerney on February 1.
"We think we're going to see the travel outbound from China to Southeast Asia," he added. "But I think it's going to be still a bit of time before we're going to see a Chinese traveler back in Europe at the level of pre pandemic or back in the United States at the level of pre pandemic."
Visa shares were marked 3% higher in early afternoon trading Fridayto change hands at $231.33 each, a move that would extend the stock's six-month gain to around 10%.
Earlier this week, Visa's smaller rival, Mastercard MA, said "remarkably resilient" consumer spending, as well as the ongoing travel boom, helped its post better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings.
Mastercard said group revenues rose 21.4% to $5.8 billion, essentially matching analysts' estimates of a $5.79 billion tally, with gross dollar volumes up 8% and purchase volumes up 11%.
“As we look at the broader economy, we see the continued recovery of cross-border travel, with volumes up 59% versus a year ago and we’re encouraged by Asia opening up further," said CEO Michael Miebach.
