S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter. Mastercard Incorporated is a multinational company, whose principal business is to process payments and to provide related services to financial institutions and other customers. Its main services are in support of the credit, debit, prepaid and related payment programs.

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MasterCard Incorporated Earnings Cheat Sheet for the First Quarter

Results: Net income for the business services company rose to $562 million ($4.29/share) vs. $455 million ($3.46/share) in the same quarter a year earlier. A rise of 23.5% from the year earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 14.8% to $1.5 billion YoY.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: MA beat the mean analyst estimate of $4.08/share. Estimates ranged from $3.72 per share to $4.28 per share.

Quoting Management: “We had a strong start to 2011 despite the hardships experienced by many consumers and businesses due to natural disasters and political turmoil in several markets. Our solid volume and processed transaction growth helped to drive a double-digit revenue increase. This growth is reflective of the strong fundamentals and globality of our business,” said Ajay Banga, MasterCard president and chief executive officer. “We continue to launch new products, enter new geographies and open new acceptance channels. We launched Travelex Cash Passport in Brazil and South Africa and recently completed our acquisition of the Card Program Management assets of Travelex, allowing us to further build our global prepaid presence. During the quarter, we also signed a long-term debit renewal with Poste Italiane, one of our largest debit issuers in Europe.”

Key Stats:

The company has now seen net income rise in three-straight quarters. In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, net income rose 41.2% and in the third quarter of the last fiscal year, the figure rose 14.6%.

Competitors to Watch: Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS), Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT), Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN), Wright Express Corporation (NYSE:WXS), Net one UEPS Tech., Inc. (NASDAQ:UEPS), FleetCor Tech., Inc. (NYSE:FLT), and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT)

Stock Performance: Shares of MA are up 2.8% from a previous close of $275.29.

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