Visa Q4 Profit Beats Estimates

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, as consumers used their debit cards more, and the company raised prices, sending shares up 2.4 percent.

The world's largest payment network also authorized a $1 billion share repurchase plan, and said the decline in payment volume was easing in the United States, in the first sign of stabilization on its business since the financial crisis.

Visa is partly insulated from the credit crisis because it processes transactions rather than lends funds. But the company has seen a slowdown in the growth of revenue and transaction volumes as consumers used their credit cards less.

"The U.S. and rest of world are still picking themselves up from the economic storm of the past year, (but) we are beginning to see some very early signs of stabilization and some positive trends," Chief Executive Joseph Saunders said in a conference call with analysts.

"We are feeling more positive about trends for the first time in a long while," Saunders said.

Net income was $514 million, or 69 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended September 30, compared with a net loss of $356 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, quarterly net income rose 23 percent to $552 million, or 74 cents per share.

That was 2 cents better than analysts average forecast of 72 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net operating revenue rose 10 percent to $1.9 billion, beating analysts estimates of $1.8 billion, helped by higher prices and higher transactions.

TRENDS IMPROVE

Total processed transactions -- which represent transactions processed by VisaNet -- increased 9 percent to 10.3 billion, but payment volume fell 2 percent for the quarter ended June 30, which translates to revenue in the following quarter.

In the United States, Visa debit volume increased 5 percent, while credit volume fell 10 percent.