Visa does not lower full-year forecast as Wall Street had expected

By Sruthi Shankar and Sudarshan Varadhan

(Reuters) - Visa Inc , the world's largest payments network operator, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and did not lower its full-year forecasts as many Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Visa's strong report on Thursday comes amid fears of a global economic slowdown and a strong dollar, and helped send the company's shares up more than 3 percent in extended trading.

The company said it was maintaining the full-year profit and revenue forecasts issued on Nov. 2, but said moderating cross-border volume growth and subdued U.S. activity could affect its results.

Since Visa last gave its forecast, analysts on average had reduced their profit estimate by nearly 5 percent and their revenue estimate by nearly 2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"They maintained their guidance inspite of very concerning commentary around the global economy," said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc.

Visa had forecast adjusted class A earnings per share to rise in the low-end of the mid-teens percentage range on a constant dollar basis and revenue to rise in the high single-digit to low double-digit range on a constant dollar basis.

Investors will find it encouraging that Visa continues to perform well despite of the issues in various parts of the world, Luria said.

The average value of the dollar against a basket of currencies was 11.7 percent higher in the latest fourth quarter compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

Visa's total payments volume rose 11 percent to $1.3 trillion on a constant dollar basis in the three months ended Dec. 31.

U.S. payment volumes, which account for more than half of its total payment volumes, jumped 9.5 percent.

That helped boost total operating revenue rose 5.4 percent to $3.57 billion.

Visa's net income by rose 23.7 percent to $1.94 billion, or 80 cents per Class A share.

Excluding a $255 million non-operating income recorded due to remeasurement of the Visa Europe put option, Visa earned 69 cents per share, one cent more than analysts' expectations.

Visa said in November it would buy former subsidiary Visa Europe Ltd.

Shares of Visa, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, were up 3.12 percent at $71.49 after the bell.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Sudarshan Varadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)