Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) stock fell 0.42% (As on May 2, 11:20:11 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company reported first-quarter profit that exceeded Wall Street expectations, on higher card spending by U.S. consumers despite rising borrowing costs and persistent inflation. Payments firms have benefited from wage growth and a tight labor market that has afforded job security to its card users. Gross dollar volume, the value of all transactions processed on Mastercard’s platform, rose 10% to $2.3 trillion. Cross-border volume, which tracks spending on cards outside of the country of their issue, rose 18%. Mastercard Inc. has revised its full-year forecast downward, citing unfavorable foreign exchange rates as headwinds. Mastercard’s customers had issued 3.4 billion Mastercard- and Maestro-branded cards by the end of the period

During the quarter, Mastercard and Visa reached one of the largest antitrust settlements ever, agreeing to cap credit-card interchange fees and allowing merchants to charge customers more for using certain cards and use pricing tactics to steer consumers away from higher-cost cards. The agreement, which merchants said would save them at least $30 billion over five years, is subject to court approval.

MA in the first quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $3.31, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $3.24, according to LSEG data. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 10 percent to $6.35 billion in the first quarter of FY 24, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $6.33 billion. The increase was attributable to growth in the payment network and our value-added services and solutions. Value-added services and solutions net revenue increased 16%, or 15% on a currency-neutral basis. The increase was driven primarily by strong growth in the underlying key drivers and continued demand for the consulting and marketing services, loyalty solutions and fraud and security capabilities.

Additionally, during the first quarter of 2024, Mastercard repurchased 4.4  million shares at a cost of $2.0  billion and paid $616 million in dividends. Quarter-to-date through April 26, the Company repurchased 1.7 million shares at a cost of $815 million, which leaves $11.3 billion remaining under the approved share repurchase programs.

The company expects net revenue growth to be at the low end of low double digits for 2024, compared with previous guidance for growth at the high end of low double digits. Currency exchange is now expected to be a headwind given the recent appreciation of the US dollar.