Visa Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Visa reported fiscal Q2 net revenue of $11.2 billion, up 17% year‑over‑year, with EPS rising 20%; payments volume grew 9% to $3.7 trillion and processed transactions increased 9% to 66 billion.
• Management highlighted accelerating higher‑margin businesses: value‑added services now represent about 30% of net revenue and are growing >25%, commercial and money‑movement revenue rose ~24%, and Visa Direct delivered 3.7 billion transactions; the firm is also scaling stablecoin settlement (>$7 billion annual run rate) and positioning for AI/agentic commerce opportunities.
• Visa returned capital aggressively—repurchasing a record $7.9 billion and paying $1.3 billion in dividends—and the board approved a new $20 billion repurchase program (bringing total buyback capacity to ~$33 billion), while raising full‑year guidance to net revenue growth in the “low double‑digit to low teens” and adjusted EPS growth in the “low teens.”

Visa NYSE: V reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 results that Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney called the company’s strongest net revenue growth since 2022, with management highlighting momentum across consumer payments, commercial and money movement, and value-added services, alongside emerging opportunities tied to artificial intelligence, agentic commerce, and stablecoins.

Quarterly performance and key metrics

McInerney said fiscal second-quarter net revenue rose 17% year-over-year to $11.2 billion, while earnings per share increased 20%. Payments volume grew 9% year-over-year in constant dollars to $3.7 trillion, and processed transactions increased 9% to 66 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh said results exceeded internal expectations, with outperformance “largely driven by higher than expected volatility, stronger than expected value-added services revenue, and lower than expected incentives.” Suh added that net revenue increased 16% in constant dollars, and EPS rose 20% year-over-year in both nominal and constant dollars.

Spending trends, cross-border activity, and regional dynamics

Suh said U.S. payments volume grew 8% year-over-year, accelerating from the prior quarter, which he attributed to “resilience in consumer spending.” He noted that e-commerce spend outpaced face-to-face spend, and that both credit and debit trends improved, with Suh saying tax refunds likely provided some support. Debit volume grew 7% and credit volume rose 10%, with Suh citing strong travel spend in both consumer and commercial.

International payments volume increased 10% year-over-year in constant dollars. Suh said Latin America and Europe were consistent with the prior quarter, Canada improved “primarily due to processing days,” and Asia-Pacific saw “macro improvements in mainland China” along with strong client performance in other markets. In CEMEA, Suh said payments volume growth stepped down about 2.5 points from the prior quarter due to the conflict in the Middle East, noting CEMEA is “about 6% of our total payments volume.”

Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe transactions rose 11% year-over-year, consistent with the previous quarter. Suh said cross-border e-commerce increased 13%, while travel-related cross-border volume grew 10%. He noted crypto was a “slight drag,” while improved U.S. inbound volume helped offset weakness tied to the Middle East conflict, which was “most pronounced in March.”

Discussing early fiscal third-quarter trends through April 21, Suh said U.S. payments volume was up 9%, cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe was up 9% (with e-commerce up 14% and travel up 5%), and processed transactions rose 8%. He attributed April’s travel step-down to the Middle East conflict and Ramadan timing, adding that “when you normalize for Ramadan timing, the total April cross-border volume growth was in line with February levels.”

Growth drivers: consumer, commercial and money movement, and value-added services

Management emphasized four long-term growth drivers: continued share gains in consumer payments, commercial payments and money movement; the expansion of addressable market from AI and agentic commerce; stablecoins and blockchain-related opportunities; and accelerating value-added services (VAS).

McInerney said commercial and money movement solutions revenue grew 24% in constant dollars. He also said Visa Direct, which he called the largest money movement network globally, has more than 18 billion endpoints, and delivered 3.7 billion transactions in the quarter, up 23% year-over-year.

Suh said commercial payments volume grew 11% in constant dollars, outpacing overall payments volume growth, driven by client performance, new wins, and cross-border strength. He also cautioned that some of the quarter’s commercial and money movement outperformance reflected “performance adjustments and deal timing,” which he said the company does not expect to recur.

Value-added services remained a major contributor. McInerney said VAS now represents 30% of Visa’s net revenue and is growing at 25%+ in constant dollars. Suh said VAS revenue grew 27% in constant dollars to $3.3 billion, citing drivers including processed transactions, credential mix, client consulting and marketing engagements, and pricing. He said demand was particularly strong for network products and marketing services, and framed marketing services as a way to leverage Visa’s sponsorships to deepen client engagement and drive spend.

On profitability, Suh said Visa has grown VAS to roughly 30% of revenue “while preserving the overall margins of Visa,” while acknowledging that margin profiles vary across VAS portfolios.

AI, agentic commerce, stablecoins, and acquisitions

McInerney argued that AI and agentic commerce could expand Visa’s addressable market by accelerating commerce digitization, increasing transaction counts through intelligent purchase-splitting and microtransactions, reducing friction in B2B payments, and supporting broader economic growth. He positioned Visa’s advantage around “our network, security, and trust,” emphasizing tokenization as foundational for agentic payments. McInerney said Visa recently launched “Intelligent Commerce Connect,” describing it as an on-ramp to agentic commerce, and also introduced “Visa CLI” as a proof of concept for payments via command-line tools.

On fraud and dispute risk in agentic commerce, McInerney said Visa will evolve capabilities and rules as use cases mature, while maintaining that “if a Visa cardholder experiences fraud, they’re gonna be protected.” He also said authenticated tokens should help reduce fraud and that richer data, including user intent, could improve dispute processes.

Stablecoins were another theme. McInerney said Visa has more than 160 stablecoin card programs globally and that payments volume tied to those programs rose nearly 200% year-over-year in the quarter. He also said Visa has expanded stablecoin settlement capabilities, adding five additional blockchains—Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo—bringing the total to nine. McInerney said Visa currently has a $7 billion annual run rate of stablecoin settlement volume, “up more than 50% since last quarter.” On unit economics, he said stablecoin-linked card products have “very similar economics to the products that we have today.”

Visa also highlighted business development and acquisitions. McInerney said Pismo signed its first clients in France, the Philippines, Paraguay, and Romania during the quarter, reaching 15 new countries since the acquisition. He also said Wells Fargo agreed to migrate to Pismo’s core account ledger as part of its modernization over the coming years. Suh later clarified that Pismo is reported within VAS and appears in “other revenue.” McInerney also referenced Visa’s announced acquisitions of Prisma and Newpay in Argentina.

Expenses, capital return, and updated outlook

Operating expenses increased 17%, which Suh said was consistent with expectations and driven primarily by personnel and marketing. Non-operating expense was $45 million, above expectations due to lower cash balances and higher debt levels and interest rates than forecasted. The quarter’s tax rate was 16.4%, and EPS was $3.31, with Suh noting about a half-point FX benefit.

Visa returned significant capital to shareholders. Suh said the company repurchased $7.9 billion of stock—its “highest quarterly buyback in Visa’s history”—and paid $1.3 billion in dividends. Visa ended March with $13 billion remaining under its prior authorization, and in April the board approved a new $20 billion multi-year repurchase program, bringing total buyback capacity to about $33 billion.

For the full year, Suh said Visa raised its adjusted guidance and now expects net revenue growth in the “low double-digit to low teens” range and adjusted EPS growth in the “low teens.” For fiscal third quarter, the company expects adjusted net revenue growth in the low double digits, operating expense growth in the low teens, and EPS growth in the “mid to high single digits.”

Both McInerney and Suh said Visa is monitoring impacts from the conflict in the Middle East, with McInerney calling safety of employees and clients the primary concern. Suh said the conflict has introduced near-term uncertainty, particularly for cross-border travel spend in CEMEA, but emphasized the diversity and resilience of Visa’s overall spend base, including strength in cross-border e-commerce and expected tailwinds tied to FIFA-related inbound travel and marketing services demand.

About Visa NYSE: V

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world's largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa's network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa's product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.

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