Second-quarter sales and earnings beat forecasts as spending volumes stayed firm, cross-border activity rose and Mastercard pointed to growth in services and new payment capabilities.
Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 results above Wall Street expectations, with net income rising 19% to $4.39 billion, or $4.97 a share, from $3.7 billion, or $4.07 a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were $5.04 per diluted share, ahead of the analyst consensus estimate of $4.77, while net revenue increased 14% to $9.28 billion, topping forecasts of about $9.07 billion. Shares gained more than 3% in premarket trading. Underlying payment activity remained strong. Gross dollar volume rose 8% on a local-currency basis to $2.88 trillion, purchase volume increased 10%, switched transactions rose 9% and cross-border volumes climbed 12%, helped by sustained travel demand. Mastercard ended the quarter with about 3.7 billion Mastercard- and Maestro-branded cards in circulation worldwide. The results suggest consumer spending, particularly among higher-income households, remained resilient despite inflation pressures and geopolitical disruption. Revenue growth was supported by a 10% increase in payment network revenue and a 20% jump in value-added services and solutions revenue, reflecting Mastercard’s push to diversify beyond transaction processing into fraud detection, cybersecurity, authentication and analytics. Operating income rose 17% to $5.59 billion and operating margin widened to 60.2% from 58.7% a year earlier. Mastercard repurchased 9.8 million shares for $4.9 billion in the quarter, paid $771 million in dividends and bought another 1.3 million shares for about $700 million through July 27, leaving $7.8 billion under its buyback authorization. Cash and cash equivalents increased to $11.29 billion from $10.57 billion at the end of 2025. Mastercard said it expects fiscal 2026 GAAP net revenue growth in the low teens and operating expense growth at the high end of the high single digits. On a non-GAAP, currency-neutral basis excluding inorganic activity, it continues to project revenue growth at the high end of the low double digits and operating expense growth in the low double digits. The company also highlighted new partnerships and its Agentic Payment capability, while continuing to expand digital-payment initiatives including stablecoin-based settlement support.