V Visa Inc

By Maria Armental 

Visa Inc. ended its fiscal year with record profit and revenue, showing a strong performance with double-digit percentage increases in both the number of transactions and payments processed.

The San Francisco-based company, the largest U.S. card network by number of cards in circulation and transactions, reported payments volume rose 11% both in the fourth quarter and full year, while cross-border volume rose 10%. Cross-border transactions typically carry larger fees.

The results from Visa come as card issuers in recent quarters been bolstered by stronger levels of consumer spending lifting revenue and profits.

Overall, fourth-quarter profit rose 33% to $2.85 billion, or $1.23 a Class A share.

Net operating revenue rose 12% to $5.43 billion.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet projected $1.19 a share on $5.44 billion in revenue.

This year, Visa expects per-share profit to increase in the high teens range and revenue to rise in the low double digits, compared with analysts' expectations of per-share profit gaining roughly 20% and revenue rising approximately 11%.

In September, Visa agreed to pay about $4.1 billion as part of a settlement related to a long-running dispute with merchants over fees they pay when accepting card payments from customers. The agreement, which also included Mastercard Inc. and other financial institutions, covered monetary claims but didn't resolve class claims seeking modifications to network rules.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2018 17:34 ET (21:34 GMT)

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