Today, Mastercard shares surged 4% after it reported Q1 results which exceeded analysts’ expectations.

MAQ1 adjusted EPS at $2.76 was up from $1.74 the year before and well above consensus estimates of 2.19. The net revenue was $5.2 billion. This is 24% more than the previous year and beats the consensus estimate of $4.92 trillion.

Analysts were expecting 53.6%. The operating margin was 57.1%, down from 52.9% for the same period in 2017. MA’s cross-border volume growth was 53% which is well over the 40.8% estimate.

Company processed $28.96 trillion in transactions. That’s 22% higher YoY than the $28.79 billion expected. Mastercard reported that the Russia-Ukraine conflict had a $30 million impact on its revenue.

“We’re seeing strong traction in consumer and small business payments, Mastercard Installments, and our work across the digital-asset space,” the company said.

“Even in the context of this challenging geopolitical environment, we’re off to a strong start in 2022 with robust revenue and earnings growth as cross-border volumes grew 53% versus a year ago on a local currency basis.”

Tien-Tsin Huang from J.P Morgan reiterated the Overweight rating. He also set a target price of $400.00 per share. He took note of the “slightly” lowered full-year guidance.

“U.S. and global volumes remained stable in April after healthy growth in Q1, while cross-border travel saw a strong acceleration similar to Visa results after the Omicron overhang dissipated in February,” Huang said.

For Evercore ISI analyst David Togut, results were an “across-the-board outperformance” as they came in ahead of his expectations.

By Senad Karaahmetovic