Visa just dropped its fiscal Q4 numbers, and the company pulled in $10.72 billion in revenue, up from $9.62 billion a year ago.
That’s a 14% surge, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $10.59 billion by 0.97%. On the earnings side, Visa reported $2.98 per share, slightly above the $2.97 estimate, and well above the $2.71 it reported this time last year.
This is the fourth quarter in a row that Visa has outstandingly outperformed analyst expectations on both earnings and revenue.
The company delivered a +0.34% surprise this quarter, but last quarter’s surprise was even bigger at +4.2%, when analysts expected $2.86 per share and Visa again came through with a $2.98.
But hey, don’t confuse consistency with outperformance, because despite all this, the stock has only surged by 10.1% this year, trailing the S&P 500’s 16.9% monster rally.
Visa pushes stablecoin adoption across global network
Visa’s quarterly earnings call wasn’t just about numbers though, as CEO Ryan McInerney made it clear they’re going deeper into stablecoins.
“We are adding support for four stablecoins, running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies, that we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies,” Ryan said Tuesday.
Ryan also said that Visa card spending linked to stablecoins in Q4 was four times higher than it was a year ago.
This is after Visa launched a pilot program in September to test cross-border payments using stablecoins, giving businesses a faster way to move funds internationally without the usual banking delays.
Visa has been dabbling in the crypto space for a while, but this quarter’s update gave numbers.
According to Ryan, since 2020, Visa has handled over $140 billion in crypto and stablecoin flows. That includes $100 billion worth of crypto purchases using Visa credentials.
Ryan says Visa is now letting banks mint and burn stablecoins directly through Visa’s infrastructure. The payments giant allegedly has over 130 stablecoin-linked card issuing programs across more than 40 countries.
And while they’ve worked with crypto-native firms before, McInerney emphasized that the regulatory clarity in the U.S. around USD-pegged tokens is pushing Visa to move faster.
So what’s coming next? Depends who you ask. Right now, analysts expect $3.07 EPS on $10.59 billion revenue for the next quarter. For the full fiscal year, the estimate is $12.84 EPS and $44.18 billion in total revenue.
But the revisions trend ahead of this report was mixed, so there’s no clear signal yet on where forecasts are heading next.
Visa’s stock may react to all this… or it may not. As usual, what matters most for short-term movement is what management said on the earnings call, and how investors interpret that tone. And that is a question for the next quarter.
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