Visa tops estimates

Visa’s profit dropped 75 percent in the fiscal second quarter from a year ago, largely due to the costs of integrating its recently acquired Visa Europe into the larger company.

The San Francisco company said Thursday that it earned $430 million (18 cents per share), down from $1.7 billion (71 cents) in the same period a year earlier.

Visa had two significant one-time charges related to the reorganization of the company to include Visa Europe, which Visa Inc. purchased last year. Excluding those items, Visa had an adjusted profit of $2.1 billion (86 cents), which beat analysts’ expectations.

The company continues to benefit from the increased adoption of plastic as a method of payment across the globe. All major geographic divisions reported greater use of Visa’s products in the quarter.

The amount processed on Visa’s network is closely watched by investors since the company charges a fee to a merchant each time a customer uses a Visa credit or debit card.

Visa processed $1.73 trillion on its credit and debit card network in the quarter, up 37 percent from a year earlier, but that increase includes the processing business of Visa Europe as well. In the U.S., where Visa does most of its business, the company processed $775 billion in the quarter, up roughly 12 percent from a year earlier. Visa last year became the credit card processing company for Costco, taking that business away from American Express.

Total revenue was $4.48 billion in the quarter, up from $3.63 billion a year earlier.