A $1.74 billion revenue for the Q1 posted by Visa

This week Visa posted its first quarter report that reflected the positive growth in payments volume and profits. Net income of the San Francisco, California-based credit card network for the first quarter was $574 million or $0.74 per class A share against $424 million in the same quarter a year ago. For the full year of 2009 Visa expects further net revenue growth.

Net income on an adjusted basis stood for $599 million or $0.78 per class A share, compared to $443 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts were predicting $0.66 per share for the first quarter. Net operating profit for the quarter rose by 17% to $1.74 billion from $1.49 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts expected estimated revenue of $1.68 billion for the first quarter. Payments volume grew 12% to $701 billion with total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet through December 31, 2008, increased 8% year-over-year to 9.8 billion. Total volume, inclusive of cash volume was $1.1 trillion, an increase of 16% over the prior year.

For the full year 2009 the company expects net revenue growth in the high single-digits while experts forecast revenue of $6.79 billion for the year. Adjusted earnings per class A share are expected to increase by 20% or more with net revenue growth at the lower end of the prior estimate of 11% to 15% through 2010. But the company made a reservation saying that annual revenue growth could be affected in 2010, if the current economic conditions persist beyond 2009.