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Best Ideas Newsletter holding Visa (click ticker for report: ) announced stellar results for its fiscal year 2013 first quarter Wednesday afternoon. Revenue jumped 12% year-over-year to $2.8 billion, in line with consensus estimates. Earnings per share, net of a one-time tax benefit of $0.11, increased 22% year-over-year to $1.82 per share, a few cents higher than the consensus expected. Other than a litigation charge of $4.4 billion that the firm had to pay out during the first quarter, new CEO Charlie Scharf’s first quarter on the job went off without a hitch. Payments volume increased across all geographies, growing 3% year-over-year in the US to $544 billion, 13% (excluding currency) in Asia-Pacific to $313 billion, and 37% (excluding currency) in Central … Read more

Late last week, payment processor MasterCard (click ticker for report: ) announced terrific fourth quarter results. Revenue jumped 10% year-over-year to $1.9 billion, in line with expectations. Earnings, however, exceeded consensus estimates, growing 21% year-over-year to $4.86 per share. Much like Best Ideas Newsletter holding Visa (click ticker for report: ), MasterCard continues to ride secular tailwinds as the world moves to a cashless society. Though the US is MasterCard’s largest market, its credit card market share substantially lags that of Visa. Still, the company has tremendous global exposure. With credit and debit payments nearing maturity in the US, other markets (shown below) are driving the growth at MasterCard (Image Source: MasterCard Earnings Presentation). Although the company’s exposure to Europe may be … Read more