By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 24th, 2024
Visa dedicated a section of its earnings call to detail its plans for the cryptocurrency market niche.
American multinational financial services corporation Visa Inc (NYSE: V) has released its earnings report for its Q1 in the 2021 fiscal year. Per the released earnings, Visa beats its projected earnings estimate for the quarter.
The firm reported an Earning Per Share (EPS) of $1.42 on revenue of $5.69 billion as against the expected drop in the EPS to the tune of 13% to $1.27. While Visa reported a 5% growth in its services revenue to $2.68 billion in Q1, it also boasts a 6% boost in its data processing revenue to $3.03 billion. The earnings report also showed a decline in the international transaction revenue by 28% to $1.45 billion.
“Our performance in the fiscal first quarter reflected solid results and continued positive momentum in a challenging COVID-19 environment. We saw sustained strength of debit and eCommerce volumes as well as resilient domestic spending in most countries,” said Alfred Kelly, Visa Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer. The Visa boss is hopeful that the company will exit the pandemic with a much stronger performance.
More Details on Visa Q1 Performance
Current and prior year’s results included $16 million and $13 million of net gains from equity investments, respectively. The net revenues for the first quarter according to the firm came in at $5.7 billion, a decrease of 6%, primarily driven by the year-over-year decline in crossborder volume, partially offset by growth in payments volume and processed transactions.
Amid the large uncertainties, Visa refused to state its overall outlook for the 2021 fiscal year. Per the earnings release, the firm noted that; “Given the continuing impact of COVID-19 and the significant uncertainty in the global economy, it is difficult to reasonably estimate the Company’s annual results; therefore we are not providing a fiscal full-year 2021 outlook at this time.”
Visa shares closed up by 1.57% to $198.22 on Thursday and added an additional 0.62% in the pre-market trading.
Plan for Crypto Payments by Visa
Crypto payments appear to be in the innings for Visa Inc (V) as the firm according to The Block dedicated a section of its earnings calls to detail its plans for the emerging market niche. The company which already supports as much as 160 fiat currencies is poised to make crypto payments safer and more widely used through its partnership approach according to CEO Kelly.
“It goes without saying to the extent specific digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today,” said Kelly.
Cryptocurrency payments and transactions are becoming more popular in a world where more investors and traders are beginning to seek alternatives to the existing fiat currency payments. Kelly profiles the crypto assets into those he calls digital Gold including Bitcoin (BTC), and altcoins, and those that are pegged to fiat currencies including Stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
The firm through its latest moves is looking to provide more capabilities for both asset classes in the new future.