Visa beats on earnings, increases dividend by 20%

After adjustments, Visa
V,
+1.92%
earned $1.93 a share, up 19% from a year prior, while analysts tracked by FactSet were looking for $1.87 a share.

Visa’s revenue rose to $7.79 billion from $6.56 billion and came in ahead of the FactSet consensus, which was for $7.55 billion.

Like many other companies, Visa is feeling the impact of a strong U.S. dollar. While overall revenue rose 19% during the latest quarter, Visa said that revenue was up 23% on a constant-dollar basis.

Payments volume at Visa grew 10% in the most recent quarter, while processed transactions increased 12%.

The company saw 36% growth in cross-border volume during the September quarter, or 49% growth when excluding transactions made within Europe. Cross-border payments occur when someone with a card issued in one country makes a payment at a merchant based in another country. While the cross-border category is generally seen as a proxy for travel spending, it also captures international e-commerce.

Visa Chief Executive Al Kelly said in a release that Visa’s results marked “a continuation of many of the spending trends present throughout 2022: strength in consumer payments, resilience in e-commerce and ongoing recovery in cross-border travel.”

Though “some short-term uncertainty exists,” he’s “confident in Visa’s long-term growth trajectory across consumer payments, new flows and value-added services.”

Visa noted in its release that during October, its board of directors approved a new $12 billion stock-buyback program as well as an increase to the dividend. The quarterly cash dividend will be 45 cents a share, up from 38 cents prior, payable on Dec. 1 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 11.

Shares of Visa have lost about 10% so far this year as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.07%
has fallen 12%.