Consumption resilience drives performance: MasterCard's (MA.US) Q3 revenue and profit exceed expectations.

Due to strong consumer and business spending, Mastercard (MA.US) exceeded analysts' expectations in the third quarter. The financial report shows that Mastercard's adjusted net profit for Q3 was $4 billion, or $4.38 per share. This surpassed Wall Street analysts' estimate of $3.91 billion, or $4.31 per share. Third-quarter revenue was $8.6 billion, a 16.7% year-over-year increase, also exceeding analysts' expectations. Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach stated in a statement on Thursday that the profit performance was "driven by healthy consumer and business spending, as well as the continued strong performance of our differentiated services." Total transaction volume for the third quarter was $2.75 trillion, in line with market expectations, higher than the $2.63 trillion in the second quarter and $2.50 trillion in the third quarter of 2024. Mastercard's number of cards increased by 6% year-on-year, from 3.42 billion in the third quarter of 2024 to 3.64 billion. The company still expects a "high teens" percentage increase in net revenue for 2025, consistent with the forecast given in July. Visa, Mastercard's payment network competitor, also reported strong quarterly performance earlier this week, highlighting the resilience of spending.