Visa 2Q profits up 3.6%, helped by more spending on network

Visa says its fiscal second-quarter profits increased 3.6% from a year earlier, helped by growth in payments being processed over the company’s namesake network

Visa said Thursday that its fiscal second-quarter profits increased 3.6% from a year earlier, helped by growth in payments being processed over the company’s namesake network.

The San Francisco-based company reported net income of $3.08 billion, or $1.38 per share, compared with a profit of $2.98 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the same period last year.

Excluding one-time items, including acquisition costs and the impact of equity investments, Visa earned $1.39 a share, or 5 cents more than what the consensus analyst forecast, according to FactSet.

Revenue increased 7% to $5.9 billion, topping analysts’ estimates for $5.7 billion.

The company said its payments volume and processed transactions were not affected by COVID-19 until the latter part of March.

Visa earns a small fee for every transaction on its network.

Its stock slipped about 1% in after-market trading following the release of the earnings report.