Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) released their latest earnings reports before opening bell this morning. MasterCard posted earnings of 79 cents per share and $2.52 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 69 cents per share and $2.59 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter. MasterCard said acquisitions had a diluted impact of 3 cents per share during the quarter.
Chevron reported an adjusted loss of 31 cents per share, compared to Wall Street’s estimate of 46 cents per share in earnings. The energy company’s revenue for the fourth quarter was $29.25 billion, compared to the consensus of $28.72 billion.
MasterCard posts solid growth
MasterCard’s gross dollar volume climbed 12% year over year to $1.2 trillion. Processed transactions climbed 12% to $13 billion, while cross-border volumes also rose 12% year over year. The company said higher rebates and incentives partially offset these increases and that acquisitions added 2 percentage points to total revenue growth.
“Entering 2016, while uncertainty in the global economy persists, the fundamentals of our business and our approach remain unchanged,” MasterCard President and CEO Ajay Banga said in a statement. “We continue to be laser focused on our strategy to lead payment innovation in an increasingly digital world with solutions such as MasterPass, while growing the use of electronic payments through our products, partnerships and increased acceptance at the point-of-sale.”
Shares of MasterCard edged higher in premarket trading, climbing by as much as 0.74% to $84 per share.
Chevron struggles amid tumbling oil prices
Chevron said currency headwinds were a heavy weight of $46 million during the fourth quarter. The energy company’s upstream business turned out a loss of $1.95 billion during the fourth quarter as a result of lower crude realizations and higher exploration expenses, among other problems. The segment produced 2.67 million barrels of net oil equivalent per day, an increase from 2.58 million in the year-ago quarter. Average sales price per crude barrel and natural gas liquids was $35.
Chevron’s downstream business recorded $496 million in earnings with refinery crude oil input declining 1% to 916,000 barrels per day. Refined product sales were 1.23 million barrels a day.
Shares of Chevron slumped in premarket trades, falling by as much as 1.99% to $84.15 per share.
