Visa Inc. 3Q profits rise 11%, beating expectations

NEW YORK (AP) — Payment processor Visa Inc. said Tuesday that its fiscal third quarter profits rose by an adjusted 11% from a year earlier, as more consumers spent more on Visa credit and debit cards.

The San Francisco-based company reported a profit of $3.10 billion, up from $2.33 billion last year. The company had a one-time $600 million charge last year related to legal expenses.

On a per share basis, Visa earned $1.37 a share, which is more than the $1.33 a share that analysts had been expecting, according to FactSet.

Consumers and businesses spent $2.230 trillion on Visa's network last quarter, up 8.7% from the same quarter in 2018.

Visa earns a small fee from every transaction that runs on its network, and most of its profit growth comes from whether more consumers and businesses are using Visa credit and debit cards for transactions instead of cash, or its competitors, American Express and Mastercard.

Visa has been on an acquisition streak lately, buying four companies in the last three months. It bought cross-border payments company Earthport in May. In June, Visa bought an anti-fraud company Verifi and technology assets from Rambus. Last week it bought payment systems company Payworks.

Total revenue for Visa was $5.84 billion, up from $5.24 billion a year earlier.

Its stock slipped $1.10 to $179.80 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.