Mastercard Stock Rises as Earnings Get Boost From Growth in Payments Network -- Barrons.com

By Mackenzie Tatananni

Mastercard delivered a clean sweep in its second quarter, posting better-than-expected revenue and earnings while gently raising its top-line outlook for the year.

The credit card giant posted adjusted earnings of $5.04 a share, outstripping the $4.77 consensus estimate among analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue climbed to $9.28 billion from $8.13 billion in the same period last year and beat Wall Street's forecast of $9.08 billion by a comfortable margin.

Switched transactions -- a measure of the volume of individual authorizations and clearings handled by the company -- increased 9% to 47.4 billion. As a key operational indicator, the growth points to robust global consumer spending and an ongoing shift toward electronic payments.

Growth in the company's payment network and value-added services drove strength in the quarter, Mastercard said. On the back of those results, management slightly raised its outlook for the full year.

Revenue growth guidance is now pinned at the "low teens," compared to the previous low-double-digit to low-teen range.

Heading into the report, Citi Research analyst Bryan Keane didn't anticipate any surprises, saying he expected net revenue growth in the quarter to be broadly in line with the company's guidance.

Investors cheered the results. Shares rose 2.3% to $576.14 on Thursday. Major rival Visa fell 1.3%. The benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.3%.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 30, 2026 10:04 ET (14:04 GMT)