Mastercard beats profit estimates on strong holiday season spending

(Reuters) - Mastercard Inc <MA.N> beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday as customers spent more on its cards during the U.S. holiday shopping season, boosting fees for the world's second-largest payment processor.

The company's gross dollar volume, the dollar value of transactions processed, rose 12% to $1.73 trillion (£1.3 trillion) in the fourth quarter.

U.S. retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, restaurants and online, rose every month in the fourth quarter helped by a strong holiday shopping season, while wage gains and the labour market remained on solid footing.

Around 29.38 billion transactions were processed, a 19% increase from a year earlier. The gain was led by a 9% rise in the United States and a 28% jump in Europe.

Net revenue rose 16% to $4.41 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $4.40 billion.

Adjusted net income rose to $2.0 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.6 billion a year earlier. (https://mstr.cd/36wyQag)

On a per share basis, the company earned $1.96 per share, while analysts had expected a profit of $1.87 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Shares of the company were up 1% in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)