MasterCard stock slumps after revenue warning

By Juan Lagorio

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MasterCard Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Friday but said revenue growth this year will fall short of its targets, sending its shares down 7 percent in afternoon trading.

The world's second-largest credit card network said lower expenses and increased fees helped first-quarter results.

Net income fell 18 percent to $367 million, or $2.80 per share, from $447 million, or $3.37 per share, a year earlier. But the results beat Wall Street expectations.

Analysts, on average, forecast earnings of $2.62 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company's bigger rival, Visa Inc, beat Wall Street earnings expectations earlier this week, helped by higher fees, lower expenses and increased use of its debit cards by consumers.

"People were generally encouraged with Visa (and) that added some momentum to MasterCard," said Ken Crawford, senior portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management.

MasterCard shares climbed to a seven-month high on Thursday, a day after Visa released its earnings.

MasterCard is partially insulated from the credit crisis because it processes transactions rather than lends funds. But the company has seen a slowdown in the growth of revenue and transaction volumes as battered consumers used their credit cards less.

"Visa has more debit (business), and most people think that debit is less discretionary and is a more stable method for payment, while credit is for things you may or may not buy," Crawford said.

Unlike Visa, MasterCard relies more on credit than on debit cards, which is a tough business when consumers are scaling back debt and banks shrink lending.

MasterCard's first-quarter U.S. credit volume fell 17.2 percent, compared to an 11.4 percent decline last quarter, while U.S. debit volume grew 5.6 percent, in line with the levels of the previous quarter.

Credit and charge programs accounted for 67 percent of the gross dollar volume of MasterCard, while the remaining 33 percent was related to debit cards.

In addition, mounting pressure from Washington for credit card companies to slash fees and interest rates could takes its toll on card networks, as it could slow growth in an industry that developed rapidly before the financial crisis.

MasterCard shares were down 7.8 percent at $169.15 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares are up 25 percent this year.

REVENUE UNDER PRESSURE