NEW YORK: Visa reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday as customers swiped their cards to pay for travel, shopping and dining out, signalling resilient US consumer spending underpinned by a strong labour market and wage growth.
The Fifa World Cup, which ran from June 11 to July 19, also helped boost activity across Visa's network as it brought many visitors to the United States.
Payments volume, a gauge of consumer and business spending on Visa's network, jumped 9% in the quarter. Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe, a measure of international travel demand, jumped 14%.
Shares fell more than 1% in extended trading. The stock has gained 14.6% this year through the last close.
Billions of people worldwide use Visa and Mastercard for their everyday spending and other purchases, making the card networks better equipped to weather downturns. They also have more expense flexibility to support profit growth.
Net revenue jumped 13% to US$12.1 billion in the quarter. For fiscal year 2026, Visa hauled record net revenue of US$46 billion.
The company, whose digital payments network spans across more than 200 countries and territories, earns fees from processing transactions.
The world's largest payment processor's net income was US$6 billion, or US$3.19 per share, in the three months ended Sept 30, compared with US$5.1 billion, or US$2.62 per share, a year earlier.
Visa expects fiscal 2027 net revenue growth to be in the low double-digit percentage. Profit per share is expected to growth between a low double-digits to low-teens percentage.
Closest rival Mastercard is set to report quarterly earnings later this week.