Visa says its net income slid to £2.28 billion in the fiscal first quarter

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) said on Thursday that its earnings and revenue in the fiscal first quarter came in better what analysts had anticipated. The company attributed its hawkish performance to strong e-commerce trends in recent months due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Visa announced a new share buyback programme on Thursday worth £5.84 billion.  

The COVID-19 crisis has so far infected more than 102 million people worldwide and caused over 2.2 million deaths. Amidst the health emergency, as per the payments giant, its debit business showed resilience, but the credit business remained under pressure.

In separate news from the United States, Mondelez said on Thursday that robust demand for snacks amidst COVID-19 restrictions resulted in a better-than-expected revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Visa Q1 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

Visa said that its net income in the first quarter printed at £2.28 billion that translates to £1.04 per share. In the same quarter last year, it had reported a higher £2.39 billion of net income or £1.07 per share.

The American multinational earned the same £1.04 per share on an adjusted versus the year-ago figure of £1.07 per share. Visa generated £4.15 billion in revenue in the recent quarter that came in lower than £4.42 billion last year.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to record £4.03 billion of revenue in the first quarter. Their estimate for adjusted per-share earnings stood at a lower 93 pence per share. Peer Mastercard Inc. also published its earnings report for the fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday.

Visa refrains from giving future guidance on Thursday

Visa refrained from giving future guidance on Thursday but Chief Financial Officer, Vasant Prabhu said:

“Our best sense is that the second-quarter gross-revenue growth rate will recover to be flattish with last year, with most of the improvement driven by international revenues.”

Visa shares were reported more than 1% up in extended trading on Thursday. Including the price action, the stock is now trading at £146.62 per share. In comparison, it had slid to as low as £99.08 per share in the last week of March 2020 when the impact of COVID-19 was at its peak. Learn more about how can you start trading online on the stock market.

At the time of writing, the U.S. financial services corporation is valued at £338 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 45.82.