- MasterCard Inc (NYSE:MA - News), the world's second-largest card network, posted better-than- expected earnings on Monday, excluding items, boosted by a strong revenue growth outside the Unites States and currency fluctuations. The Purchase, New York-based company reported earnings excluding charges of $322 million, or $2.47 a share. Analysts on average expected earnings of $2.22 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
- Revenue increased 24 percent to $1.34 billion, boosted by double-digit growths in Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America. In the United States, where MasterCard generates around 40 percent of its transactions, revenue grew only 4.7 percent.
- In addition, transactions processed increased 13 percent to 5.4 billion, while the gross dollar volume transactions rose 12.3 percent to $662 billion.
- But Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander said MasterCard expected revenues to grow below the company's long-term target of 12 percent to 15 percent in 2009 amid a fast deterioration of the world's economy. "We are in an economic crisis like I don't think we have seen in our lifetime," Martina Hund-Mejean, chief financial officer, said in an interview with Reuters.
- Hund-Mejean said MasterCard felt a sharp deterioration of the world's economy in October with a sudden slowdown of cross- border transactions and forecast the economic downturn would be widespread, from the United States and Europe to emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Mexico.
- During October, cross-border volume growth was in the high single digits, compared with the 18 percent growth achieved in the third quarter. The marked slowdown is a direct result of Americans cutting back on their travel spending, he said.
- The slower economic growth together with a recent appreciation of the U.S. dollar -- which lowers revenues from abroad -- is expected to hammer MasterCard business next year. "We are planning on a more prolonged downturn rather than something turning around in the next three to six months ... My main concern is how long this is going to last," Hund-Mejean said.
- She added the company forecast operating expenses would remain flat in 2009, as MasterCard is reducing spending in contractors, suppliers, trips and cutting frozen jobs.
- "I think people are going to be happy with their results," said John Williams, a research analyst at Macquarie Capital. "It is somewhat a sigh of relief for people. They thought the world was ending and clearly it is not."
[Apr 29: Mastercard Continues to Impress]
[Jan 31: Mastercard Continues to be Priceless]
[Dec 7: Mastercard to Benefit from Visa IPO Hype]
[Oct 31: Bravo Mastercard]
Long Mastercard in fund; no personal position
7 comments:
Argh. Is anyone else kicking themselves for not getting into this rally, or cashing out too early? Guess the recession is over haha...oil, ags, infrastructure (JEC just increased guidance for 09), solar all up big.
When do you accept a bull move and jump on (while you watch resistance levels get passed) vs. short the market...looks like the S&P 20dma may be the support to watch.
crappy ... I'm guessing lots of people are heavy cash right now. I am.. T. Boone Pickens' fund is all cash according to an interview.. So everyone's kicking themselves. But the markets just didn;t seem to have any direction. I've been looking at going EEM or EEV... It just teetered on the line. I'll wait till the election bump subsides and a direction is called. Apparently, election day gets a boost, and fades in the afternoon. So this AM, when the DOW was up almost 300, I sold some stuff.
Anyway.. I've been waiting for you to post again as you say you click the email advice box...
Awhile back, you asked about MLPs and how they can affect an IRA. Oddly enough, I came across this article on MLPs that references potential pitfalls.. Suggest you read it... jegan
http://seekingalpha.com/article/101726-six-high-yielding-mlps?source=yahoo
crappy, anyone long going into sept/oct is making up just a small portion of their losses here. The only people making money are those who jumped in about a week ago. In many stocks even after huge moves they are back to where they were 2-3 weeks ago.
Maybe you are a daytrader, I don't know your style. If so, you need to work on better entry points if you missed the move. For the great majority of people, it is very easy to say "oh I missed this" but if you bought any oversold rally the past 2 months you'd of lost money within hours. So of course you will miss it the one time it doesn't continue down that path.
Any real rally will last for 2-4 months. If you miss the first week of it, you won't miss much. The S&P is now about 6% away from a real resistance level so if you want to play the long side you have that margin for error.
It is always easier to make up lost opportunities than lost capital. But it depends on your average duration of hold on your trades - if you are very short term that is different than someone who generally holds positions at least for a few weeks or months. Or a buy and hold type.
This tape is only for daytraders - still.
Or put another way... do you have the talent to make more on the upside with timing than you lose on the downside by playing all the other dips that lost people enormous amounts of money by being "early". That's the question everyone needs to ask. Someone down 50% on a position needs to make 100% just to break even. Same with 40%, 30%, but in different ratios. It's been very easy to lose 30% in 1 week in many stocks the past few months.
Anyhow the "bullishness" is fun to watch - but we did cross over S&P 985 so you can't bet heavily against the market yet.
TM.. Good points.... Also like to add that even if you use tight stops on a pivot, or under a prior resistance, you can easily be stopped out much lower than you'd have expected during an overnoght feeding frenzy... Happened to me with AAPL and RIMM ...
Also, the daily rotation is hard to deal with. Wake up one moring and oil has spiked up $4 a barrel, tomorrow morning, it's down $3 and financials have spiked...Or utilites, shipping etc.. Too late to get in and you really have no idea which Jekyl/Hyde combo you face the next day's coffee.
jegan
n
jegan
that's why its easier being a strategist than an investor
or trader
further, much of each day's move is in premarket nowadays
meaning these 2% type of gap opens - down or up- represent a good portion of the day's moves and individual stocks opening up 8% don't leave much room to get in.
But again, people need to know their style and time frame - I don't think its a market for investors. We were down historically and everyone knew a rally would come sooner or later. Damn market is not going to zero. But anyone who guessed over the past 2 months, got their hat handed to them. Now it is very easy to say "oh of course THIS was the time to get in" & "how could of I missed it" - many of the same folks said to get in in mid Sept, late Sept, early Oct, and even the Oct 10th low led to a further selloff after that first 1000 rally.
The market is so simple in retrospect.
Anyhow I remain neutral and this market can go either way - we'll see how it reacts to the retail news and jobs report - if it shrugs it off than a longer term rally may be in place. A lot of stocks quickly approach resistance levels as well after being nowhere near them for weeks on end. So we'll see how they react individually.
Many people who are bullish now should of been bullish about 8 days ago if they were such great "timers".
Great points TM and jeegan! And thanks for the MLP link jeegan. I, along with many I'M sure, just needed a pep talk :)
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