Consumer spending has proven resilient, while labor market cracks and persistent inflation continue to fuel concerns about US President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies.
Mastercard’s earnings round out earnings season for card companies, which are closely watched by Wall Street to gauge consumer health.
Due to their large share of daily global transactions, Mastercard and Visa card networks are widely seen as protected from a potential payment delay.
Rival Visa also beat quarterly profit expectations earlier this week, while American Express’s focus on wealthy customers helped it bring in record revenue in the third quarter.
The company reported adjusted earnings of $3.96 billion, or $4.38 per share, for the quarter ended September 30. Analysts on average expected earnings of $4.32 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Mastercard’s net revenue rose 17% to $8.6 billion in the quarter from a year earlier. A bottleneck in federal data due to the U.S. government shutdown has increased uncertainty for the consumer outlook at a time when private data points to plummeting consumer confidence and a widening gap between lower-income and affluent consumers.
Mastercard’s value-added services and solutions business, which now accounts for more than a third of the company’s business, generated 25% higher revenue in the quarter.
The company has diversified its revenue streams to tap into the growing demand for threat intelligence and anti-fraud through value-added services.
Cross-border volume, which tracks card spending outside the issuing country, rose 15% on a local currency basis.
Shares of New York-based card network giant Purchase fell marginally before the bell.
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