(Reuters) -Mastercard Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Thursday, as improved overall consumer spending helped offset a steep decline in cross-border payments on its cards.
The company also posted a return to top line growth, with overall revenue rising for the first time in four quarters. Net revenue grew 4% to $4.2 billion from last year, coming in ahead of estimates of $3.99 billion.
"We started the year with good momentum, delivering positive net revenue growth this quarter, and are encouraged by the return of domestic spending levels to pre-pandemic trends," Chief Executive Officer Michael Miebach said in a statement.
Mastercard (NYSE:MA)'s optimism on spending was in line with what peers Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) had said earlier in April.
A rebound from last year's pandemic-fueled recession has lifted consumer spending in parts of the world and boosted card companies.
Visa, the world's largest payments processor, beat quarterly profit estimates on Tuesday, helped by a surge in online shopping that countered sluggish travel spending.
Mastercard's gross dollar volumes, which represents the dollar value of the transactions processed, rose 8% on a local currency basis from a year earlier to $1.7 trillion.
However, cross-border spending remains weak, as a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 cases in some parts of the world weighs on travel spending.
Mastercard's cross-border volume, one of the key measures that track spending on its cards beyond the country of its issue, tumbled 17% on a local currency basis in the first quarter.
Net income, excluding exceptional items, fell to $1.7 billion, or $1.74 per share, from $1.8 billion, or $1.83 per share, a year earlier.
Still, profit still came in ahead of estimates. Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.57 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.