Today, Visa (V 0.33%) announced its results for the first quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, reporting earnings per share of $2.20 and a net income of $1.4 billion. Those results represented increases of 14% and 9%, respectively, relative to the first period of the 2013 fiscal year.
"Visa delivered a strong fiscal first quarter, posting solid revenue, net income and earnings growth," noted Visa CEO Charlie Scharf in a statement.
Visa highlighted its revenue was up more than $300 million, or 11% year over year, to $3.2 billion. The gains resulted from increases across its three major revenue sources, as data processing revenues rose by $149 million to $1.3 billion, a gain of 13.4%. It's largest revenue stream, service revenues, was up by $119 million, or 9%, to $1.4 billion, and its international transaction revenues rose 10.7% to $891 million.
Visa's expenses only rose slightly, by 3.1%, which resulted in its operating income rising from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion, a gain of 15.4%. The company also highlighted its total transaction volume in constant U.S. dollars rose an impressive 10.1% to $1.8 trillion. For the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year, transaction volume growth year over year stood at 9.4%.
The company disclosed it repurchased 5.5 million shares during the quarter for a total of $1.1 billion. Visa's total average shares outstanding has been reduced by 30 million shares, or 4.5%, relative to the first quarter of last year, with total common stock outstanding at 639 million. The company also noted it has $4.2 billion remaining on its existing repurchase authorization plan.
"We continue to focus on embracing new partners and new technology which will make our network the one of choice," concluded Scharf. "We also continue to build services for issuers, acquirers and merchants to make our network a valuable asset for our clients."
