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First Posted: 7/31/2013 (AP) Mastercard, the payments processing company, reported a 19 percent increase in its second-quarter profit as more people worldwide used its debit and credit cards to make payments.
The results topped Wall Street expectations, and its shares jumped more than 3 percent in premarket trading.
The company's business is growing most strongly in emerging markets. The dollar value of transactions made using debit and credit cards bearing the MasterCard logo rose 17 percent in Latin America and 21 percent in the combined Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific region. The value of transactions in the U.S. increased 6.5 percent.
"We had a very good second quarter supported by increases in volume and transactions in all regions of the world despite slow economic growth globally," said Ajay Banga, MasterCard president and CEO.
The company, based in Purchase, New York, earned $848 million, or $6.96 a share, in the second quarter, which ended June 30. That's up from $700 million, or $5.56 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 15 percent, to $2.1 billion from $1.8 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $6.31 a share on revenue of $2 billion.
Mastercard also gave an update of its share buyback program for the current quarter. Through July 25 the company repurchased 296,000 of its own shares, at a cost of $174 million, leaving $1.1 billion under the current program. In the second quarter, the company bought 1.1 million of its own stock at a cost of $581 million.
Mastercard shares rose $20.33, or 3.4 percent, to $621.75 ahead of the opening bell.
<a title="Associated Press" href="http://www.ap.org" class="url org fn">Associated Press</a>

MasterCard 2Q earnings climb as revenue grows