Mastercard (MA) June 2008 Earnings Conference Call Notes
-EPS was 2.11 vs. 2.02 est. Revenue 1.2B vs. 1.21B est.
-Growth in Gross Dollar Volume 12.8% vs. 14.1% Q1
-Transactions 13.6% vs. 15.7% Q1
-Cross-border 18.9% vs. 23.6% Q1
-World-wide purchasing volume 14% vs. 15% Q1
-Cards Issued 11% (951M total) vs. 12.1% Q1
-U.S. Gross Dollar Volume growth went from 10.6% in Q4 to 8.9% in Q1 to 6.2% in Q2
-Customers are experiencing “extraordinary challenging conditions in current economic environment”
-”We are not insulated from the pain that our customers are feeling and we are actively working our expense structure to deal with the changing demands of our customers”
-Full year 2008 guidance of double-digit growth, but below 2007′s 22% growth
-Cutting marketing spending in second-half of 2008 vs. previous expectation
-”Managing our business plans in light of a tougher market and are taking the necessary expense management actions as we see our customers realigning their plans”
-Spending trends came down in June and continued in July
Take-aways
-They beat estimates, but the magnitude was much smaller than in the past.
-The tone on the business climate was very negative on the call. Actions speak even louder than words as cutting marketing spend means we’re likely to see tough sledding for the rest of the year.
-Economy sucks and is getting worse.