Visa posts Q2 2009 Earnings of $.71 per share, beating the Street

Net Income for Q2 was $536 million or $.71 per diluted share. Net operating revenues increased 13% YoY to $1.6 billion despite negative growth in U.S. payments volume. Total cards carrying the Visa brand increased 8% over the prior year to $1.7 billion. Service revenues increased 2% versus the prior year to $804 million. As of March 31, 2009, Visa's cash, cash equivalents and investment securities were $5.8 billion. Furthemore, management maintains that they will be able to achieve an operating margin in the low 50% range for 2009 and the high 40% to low 50% for FY 2010.

Visa continues to show that despite recent economic trends, their business continues perform well. Street estimates for Q2 earnings were around $.63 and Visa beat these easily. The company continues to rely on their strength in debt cards and we believe this trend will continue as Visa's current marketing campaing encourages people to use their cards more frequently for everyday expenditures.