Visa Profit Rises to $6 Billion in Fourth Quarter on Resilient Consumer Spending

Visa reported net income of $6 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter on Tuesday, up from $5.1 billion a year earlier, as customers kept swiping their cards for travel, shopping and dining out. Earnings were $3.19 per share in the three months ended September 30, compared with $2.62 per share in the same quarter last year.

Net revenue rose 13 percent from a year earlier to $12.1 billion. The result slightly outperformed expectations, after analysts had looked for net revenue of about $12.08 billion for the quarter.

Spending on the network

Payments volume jumped 9 percent in the quarter. Payments volume is a gauge of consumer and business spending on the Visa network, so the increase shows more spending activity passing through the network in the period covered by the results. That growth sits at the center of the report. A larger volume of spending on the network accompanied both the higher revenue and the higher profit for the quarter.

Why spending held up

Reuters attributed the jump in profit to customers swiping cards for travel, shopping and dining out. According to Reuters, spending by US consumers stayed resilient even as inflationary pressures persisted, helped by a strong labor market and by wage growth. Those conditions support the spending the company recorded in the quarter, on trips, on shopping and on meals out, at a time when prices were still a pressure on household budgets.

A World Cup lift

The FIFA World Cup also helped activity across the Visa network. The tournament ran from June 11 to July 19 and brought many visitors to the United States, Reuters reported. Visitor spending during the tournament added to the travel and everyday spending that moved across the network in the months before the quarter ended on September 30.

What analysts expected

Analysts had expected net revenue of about $12.08 billion, and the reported $12.1 billion came in slightly above that level. On earnings, consensus previews pointed to adjusted earnings of about $3.43 to $3.44 per share. That adjusted figure uses a different basis from the reported net income figure of $3.19 per share, and the two numbers should not be read as the same measure. The reported figure is the net income result Visa published for the quarter, $6 billion in total, against $5.1 billion a year earlier.

The results schedule

Visa scheduled its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 results for October 27, 2026, after the market close. The company set a webcast at 5:00 p.m. ET for the results. The quarter covered the three months ended September 30, and the comparison in the report is with the same period a year earlier.

Taken together, the figures show a quarter in which revenue, payments volume and profit all rose from a year earlier, led by continued spending on travel, shopping and dining out.