Mastercard tops profit estimates on higher consumer spending

• Mastercard reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.
• The results were boosted by higher consumer spending on credit and debit cards.
• A rise in customers using its cards internationally also helped drive a 31.8 percent rise in cross-border volumes when converted into dollars.

A shopper passes a shop door advertising acceptance of purchases with Master Card and Visa in Bakersfield, California.

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Mastercard reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, boosted by higher consumer spending on credit and debit cards.

Shares of the company were up 3.5 percent at $186.51 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

U.S. gross dollar volume (GDV) — the value of transactions processed in the United States, which is also Mastercard's largest market — rose 10.5 percent to $419 billion.

A rise in customers using its cards internationally also helped drive a 31.8 percent rise in cross-border volumes when converted into dollars.

Net income rose to $1.49 billion, or $1.41 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31 from $1.08 billion, or $1 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the Purchase, New York-based company earned $1.50 per share, topping analysts' estimates of $1.25 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Operating expenses rose 43 percent to $1.76 billion, partly from investments in the company's developmental programs.

Net revenue rose 31 percent to $3.58 billion.