Weaker estimates cast shadow over Visa's profit beat

(Reuters) - Visa Inc (NYSE: V) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, joining smaller rival Mastercard, as a solid holiday shopping season boosted transactions on its payment network.

However, shares fell 1.52 percent in extended trading as Visa sees higher full-year expenses and slower revenue growth in the current quarter.

"Our outlook for the fiscal second quarter net revenue growth remains a couple of points below the full year rate," Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu added.

Net income rose to $2.52 billion in the first quarter ended Dec. 31 from $2.07 billion a year earlier, while earnings per Class A share rose to $1.07 from 86 cents.

The payment processor recorded a gain of $1.13 billion related to the new U.S. tax law and a charge of $1.15 billion tied to the repatriation of funds held overseas.

Excluding items, Visa earned $1.08 per share. Analysts on average expected 99 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total operating revenue rose 9 percent to $4.86 billion, reflecting growth in payments volume and processed transactions.

Operating expenses rose 12.8 percent to $1.54 billion and Visa said it expects expenses to rise in the second quarter as well.

Payment volumes rose about 10 percent to $1.93 trillion, on a constant dollar basis, with the United States accounting for about 43.3 percent of the total.

Cross-border volumes – the value of transactions made outside of the United States – increased 9 percent, on a similar measure.

Visa said it would repurchase $7.5 billion of its stock and it has $9.1 billion of funds available for share buybacks.

Earlier in the day, Mastercard (NYSE: MA) reported a 20.2 percent jump in quarterly revenue.

(This version of the story refiles to correct typographical error in headline to cast instead of casts.)

(Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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