Visa's profit beats estimates driven by strong travel demand

(Reuters) - Visa's fourth-quarter profit beat estimates on Tuesday as consumers undeterred by inflation and a cost-of-living crisis continued to swipe cards to travel and dine out, sending shares nearly 3% higher in extended trading.

Spending by affluent consumers and a post-pandemic rebound in travel has so far provided a bulwark for U.S. card giants against volumes taking a hit due to the prevailing economic uncertainty.

Visa said payment volumes rose 9% in the quarter, while cross-border volumes excluding transactions within Europe, which drives revenue from international transactions, increased 18%.

Even as higher prices for everything from groceries to electricity have begun to squeeze budgets, particularly in lower income households, consumer spending has remained remarkably steady in the face of a looming economic slowdown.

"Throughout the year, we have seen resilient consumer spending, ongoing recovery of cross-border travel spend versus 2019," CEO Ryan McInerney said in a statement.

The company's net revenue rose 11%, to $8.6 billion, in the fourth quarter.

Last week, rival American Express also posted quarterly profit that beat expectations, helped by resilient spending from its wealthy customers.

On an adjusted basis, Visa, the world's largest payments processor, reported a profit of $2.33 per share in the three months ended Sept. 30. Analysts on average had expected $2.24 per share, according to LSEG data.

For the full fiscal year, it reported an adjusted profit of $8.77 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $8.68 per share, according to LSEG data.

Revenue for the full-year rose 11%, to $32.7 billion.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)