(Reuters) - Mastercard Inc beat Wall Street's estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday, as a strong U.S. job market and a boom in online shopping boosted transaction volumes on the company's payment network.
The company, which makes most of its money from card swiping fees and processing transactions, said its "gross dollar volume" - the dollar value of transactions processed - rose 5.4 percent to $1.48 trillion (£1.14 trillion) in the first quarter.
That drove net revenue 8 percent higher to $3.9 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $3.86 billion.
The Purchase-New York based company said it processed 23.82 billion transactions in the quarter, up 18 percent.
U.S. retail sales rose to their highest in 1-1/2 years in March, according to data published earlier this month, with almost all sectors including autos, electronics, appliances, and food and beverage registering growth.
The company's net income rose to $1.9 billion, or $1.80 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31 from $1.5 billion, or $1.41 per share, a year earlier. http://bit.ly/2vv9PfA
On an adjusted basis, it earned $1.78 per share, beating analysts' average estimate of $1.66, according to IBES data Refinitiv.
Rival Visa Inc last week reported a 14 percent jump in net profit, but its shares fell following the earnings as investors fretted over an increase in expenses, and sluggish cross-border volume growth.
Mastercard's share rose 1.17 percent in early trading on Tuesday.
(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
