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Affirm Holdings, Inc. AFRM posted fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings of $4.62 per share. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents by 1,300%. The metric rose from 20 cents a year ago. Revenues of $1.17 billion rose 33.0% year over year and surpassed the consensus mark of $1.11 billion by 5.4%. AFRM’s strong quarterly results were driven by robust Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”) growth, higher transactions, strong repeat customer engagement and increased interest income. Rapid growth in Affirm Card adoption and merchant activity also supported the performance. However, elevated operating expenses and higher provision for credit losses partly offset the gains. The bottom line also benefited significantly from a $1.45 billion income tax benefit related to the release of a valuation allowance on domestic deferred tax assets. Affirm Holdings, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Affirm Holdings, Inc. Quote As of June 30, 2026, AFRM’s active merchants totaled 570,800, up 50% year over year. GMV increased 36% year over year to $14.1 billion. The figure also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.4 billion. The metric gained from strong contributions from direct merchant point-of-sale integrations, wallet partnerships and direct-to-consumer offerings. Total transactions rallied 41.1% year over year to 52.9 million on the back of a significant surge in repeat customer transactions. The metric beat the consensus mark of 47.4 million. Active cardholders more than doubled to 5.2 million, lifting the card attach rate to about 19%. Servicing income of $46.1 million advanced 36% year over year and beat the consensus mark of $45.4 million. Interest income rose 35% year over year to $567.3 million and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $542.3 million. Merchant network revenues improved 26.3% year over year to $302.4 million but missed the consensus mark of $306.1 million. The metric gained from growing GMV. Card network revenues amounted to $85.2 million, up 26.9% year over year, attributable to higher usage of Affirm Card and Affirm virtual cards. The metric beat the consensus mark of $75.9 million. Operating expenses increased 24.5% year over year to $1.02 billion. Provision for credit losses climbed 42.5% to $223.2 million, while technology and data analytics expenses rose 31% to $202.6 million. Higher infrastructure costs and amortization of internally developed software contributed to the increase in technology and data analytics expenses. Operating income improved to $147.3 million from $58.1 million, with operating margin expanding to 12.6% from 6.6%. Adjusted operating income increased 49% to $353.4 million, and adjusted operating margin improved to 30.3% from 27.0%. Affirm exited the fiscal fourth quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.6 billion, which increased from $1.4 billion as of fiscal 2025-end. Total assets of $15.8 billion rose from the fiscal 2025-end level of $11.2 billion. Funding debt totaled $3.3 billion compared with $1.6 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. Total stockholders’ equity was $5.5 billion, up from $3.1 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. AFRM generated $1.2 billion in net cash from operations for the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, compared with $793.9 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 2025. AFRM reported 2026 operating revenues of $4.3 billion, up from $3.2 billion a year ago. Full-year adjusted net income was $5.53 per share, up from 15 cents a year ago. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, AFRM expects GMV of $13.7-$14.0 billion and revenues of $1.19-$1.22 billion. The company projects revenue less transaction costs of $575-$590 million, an adjusted operating margin of 28.0-30.0% and a GAAP operating margin of 11.5-13.5%. For fiscal 2027, management expects GMV of more than $64 billion. The company expects revenues to remain near 8.49% of GMV, the fiscal 2026 level. Adjusted and GAAP operating margins are projected to exceed 30.5% and 14.5%, respectively. Affirm Holdings currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Other payment space players like Mastercard Incorporated MA, Visa Inc. V) and American Express AXP have also reported their quarterly numbers. Here’s how they have performed: Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $5.04, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.7%. The bottom line improved 21.4% year over year. Net revenues advanced 14.1% year over year to $9.3 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.4%. Mastercard’s quarterly results benefited from strong cross-border volume growth, increased switched transactions and robust demand for value-added services. The upside was partly offset by higher payment network rebates from renewed deals and an escalating operating expense level. Visa delivered third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share, which rose 11% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. Net revenues were $11.63 billion, rising 14% year over year. Visa’s quarterly results reflected resilient spending trends, higher cross-border volumes and solid network activity, including a 10% year-over-year increase in payments volume on a constant-dollar basis. The upside was partly offset by increased operating expenses. American Express reported second-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $4.53, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.7%. The bottom line advanced 11% year over year. Total revenues, net of interest expense, improved 10% year over year to $19.6 billion. AXP’s quarterly results were driven by increased Card Member spending, higher net interest income and improved card fee growth. However, the upside was partly offset by elevated operating expenses. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report American Express Company (AXP) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Interested in Pershing Square Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Pershing Square plans to grow through portfolio compounding and selectively launch new permanent-capital vehicles. Its first planned launch, Pershing Square Ventures, is targeted for late 2026 and may invest across private companies from earlier-stage businesses to firms nearing an IPO. PSUS is approximately 95% invested after raising $5 billion, with holdings including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alcon, Netflix, Visa and Mastercard. Pershing Square also plans to pursue investment-grade leverage equal to roughly 15%–20% of total assets. Pershing Square intends to address PSUS’s discount to NAV through expanded marketing, with NAV near $50 per share versus trading in the high-$30s. The company expects to return substantially all quarterly free cash flow through dividends, while continuing to develop Howard Hughes’ insurance business and evaluate SPARC opportunities. Refiner Stocks Are Near Record Highs—Can Iran-Driven Margins Keep Them There? Pershing Square (NYSE:PS) held its first earnings call as a public company, with Chairman and CEO Bill Ackman emphasizing the firm’s strategy of generating growth through the compounding value of its existing investment portfolios while selectively launching new vehicles. Ackman said the firm’s permanent-capital structure and portfolio of what he characterized as high-quality businesses could support growth even without additional fundraising. He said rising net asset values in the funds Pershing Square manages would increase management and performance fees over time, while cautioning that stock-price multiples can be volatile on a quarterly basis. → Lumentum Just Delivered the AI Growth Investors Wanted Marathon Petroleum Is Back, But Cycles Still Matter “If we never raise another investment vehicle,” Ackman said, Pershing Square expects the underlying companies in its portfolio to compound at a high rate over time. He added that the firm expects portfolio holdings to be volatile in the short term but believes they are attractively valued. Pershing Square’s first planned new fund launch will be Pershing Square Ventures, which Ackman said is targeted for the fall or end of 2026. The firm did not provide a targeted fundraising amount and said future launches would be episodic rather than tied to a set timetable. → Ryman Checks Into a $1.38B Hospitality Upgrade 3 Oil Refiners Built to Cash In on Higher Crack Spreads Ackman said the venture vehicle would invest across a broad range of private companies, from businesses valued in the several-hundred-million-dollar range to companies valued in the tens of billions of dollars. The strategy is expected to include both earlier-stage companies and businesses nearing public offerings. Unlike traditional venture funds, which often sell or distribute positions after portfolio companies go public, Ackman said Pershing Square Ventures would be structured as a permanent-capital vehicle that could remain invested through a company’s public-market life cycle. → Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal He said the firm sees strategic value in venture investing beyond returns, including gaining insight into potential technological disruptions that could affect its core public-equity investments. Ackman also said Pershing Square plans to seed the vehicle with investments before raising capital from investors, though he said the firm was limited in what it could disclose until it files relevant documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ackman and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel said market volatility around Pershing Square’s U.S. vehicle, PSUS, created an attractive opportunity to deploy capital. Ackman said PSUS is approximately 95% invested after raising $5 billion in a volatile market environment. The executives cited investments including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alcon, Netflix, Intercontinental Exchange, Visa and Mastercard as securities that became available at what they viewed as substantial discounts. Israel said Pershing Square maintains a “library” of hundreds of companies that meet its investment standards and evaluates them based on price relative to long-term value. During periods of market volatility, he said, the firm can identify securities that have been sold off despite attractive longer-term prospects. Pershing Square also intends to add investment-grade leverage to PSUS. Ackman said the target capital structure is debt equal to roughly 15% to 20% of total assets, describing the approach as conservative compared with leverage typically used by hedge funds. The firm expects to begin discussions with rating agencies in early September and would pursue a debt offering after obtaining a rating. “If we had the incremental capital today, we have places to put it,” Ackman said. Ackman said Pershing Square is dissatisfied with PSUS’s trading price relative to its net asset value and plans to take steps to improve investor awareness and demand. He said NAV was approximately $50 per share, while PSUS had traded in the high-$30 range, which he attributed in part to the way shares were allocated during the initial public offering and an insufficient base of buyers in the secondary market. The firm plans a broader marketing effort aimed at financial advisors and other investors. Ackman said PSUS faces fewer restrictions on promotion than Pershing Square’s historical public vehicle and can be discussed more actively through media appearances, podcasts and other channels. He said Pershing Square expects future vehicles, including venture, crossover and asymmetric strategies, to be differentiated from portfolios investors could readily replicate in public markets. Israel said Pershing Square currently has no asymmetric hedge in place. The firm said it continuously evaluates potential “black swan” risks but only seeks hedges when they offer the potential for substantial returns, generally at least five to 10 times the amount invested. Ackman said the firm is not trying to hedge ordinary short-term market declines, but rather major developments such as a financial crisis, pandemic or sharp inflationary shock. On capital returns, Ackman said Pershing Square’s policy is to return substantially all quarterly free cash flow to shareholders through dividends. Israel said dividends are the most likely capital-return mechanism in the foreseeable future, though the company could act opportunistically as market conditions change. Ackman said share repurchases are not currently practical given the company’s cash-flow profile and the need for greater share trading volume. The executives also discussed Howard Hughes, where Pershing Square is pursuing a strategy to shift capital from real estate toward insurance through Vantage. Ackman said the company recruited Marc and David Gansberg to lead the insurance operation and is exploring ways to accelerate capital deployment into Vantage. Pershing Square expects to provide more insurance-style disclosures to help investors evaluate Vantage as it becomes a larger component of Howard Hughes. Ackman said the objective is to transform Howard Hughes into what he described as a “modern-day Berkshire Hathaway,” combining its real estate assets with an expanding insurance operation. Finally, Ackman said Pershing Square continues to evaluate opportunities for SPARC, its special purpose acquisition rights company. He said the structure is designed to provide private companies a route to public markets without founder shares, shareholder warrants or underwriting fees, while allowing Pershing Square funds to participate in transactions and associated warrant economics. No SPARC transaction has yet been completed. Pershing Square (NYSE: PS) is a publicly traded investment holding company managed by Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., the investment firm founded and led by William "Bill" Ackman. The vehicle provides outside investors with exposure to the firm's concentrated, actively managed investment program and is designed to deliver long‑term capital appreciation through a portfolio of equity and related positions. The company's principal activities center on investing in publicly traded companies, typically through concentrated long equity positions and selectively using derivatives or other instruments for hedging or to implement investment views. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Pershing Square Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, July 30, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET Head of Investor Relations - Devin Corr Chief Executive Officer - Michael Miebach Chief Financial Officer - Sachin Mehra President of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa - Ling Hai Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] Operator: Good morning. My name is Julianne, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Mastercard Incorporated Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you. Mr. Devin Corr, Head of Investor Relations. You may now begin your conference. Devin Corr: Thank you, Julianne. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2026 earnings call. With me today are Michael Miebach, our Chief Executive Officer; Sachin Mehra, our Chief Financial Officer; and Ling Hai, our President of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa and incoming CFO effective August 3. Following comments from Michael and Sachin, the operator will announce your opportunity to get into the queue for the Q&A session. It is only then that the queue will open for questions. You can access our earnings release, supplemental performance data and the slide deck that accompany this call in the Investor Relations section of our website, mastercard.com. Additionally, the release was furnished with the SEC earlier this morning. Our comments today regarding our financial results will be on a non-GAAP currency-neutral basis unless otherwise noted. Both the release and the slide deck include reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP reported amounts. Finally, as set forth in more detail in our earnings release, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call will include forward-looking statements regarding Mastercard's future performance. Actual performance could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Information about the factors that could affect future performance are summarized at the end of our earnings release and in our recent SEC filings. A replay of this call will be posted on our website for 30 days. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Michael Miebach. Michael Miebach: Thank you, Devin. Good morning, everyone. This is Sachin's last earnings call as CFO, and he's sitting right across the table. So before turning to our quarterly results, I'd like to take this moment to thank him and recognize him for the significant impact he's had in the role. Sachin, thank you. And we're excited to see you carry the same focus, discipline and drive into your new role as Chief Business Officer. At the same time, as you heard from Devin, Ling Hai is in the room today. He will assume the role of CFO, bringing his deep knowledge of our business, our products and our industry. You've seen that play out in the company's strong track record of supporting and growing with customers across Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. These changes as well as those across the entire leadership team reflect the strength and depth of our team. Operating as one team brings complementary experience and perspectives that sharpen focus, strengthen execution and create greater value for our customers and shareholders. From a position of strength, this evolution will help us capture the opportunities ahead and continue realizing Mastercard's full potential, and that's priceless, of course. With that, let's drive into this quarter's results. The second quarter 2026 was another strong quarter for Mastercard. Net revenues were above our expectations, up 12%, adjusted net income up 16% and value-added services net revenue up 18%, all year-over-year on a non-GAAP currency-neutral basis. The macro environment remains supportive. Consumers and businesses are healthy and continue to spend, supported by positive job growth, low unemployment and real purchasing power in many major economies. At the same time, we continue to monitor geopolitical uncertainty and its potential economic impacts. But macro is the only one part of our growth story. Our performance is driven by a clear strategy, disciplined execution and differentiated value for our customers. We remain focused on consumer payments, commercial and new payment flows and value-added services and solutions, each with significant runway and together reinforcing Mastercard's virtuous cycle. That's a good road map for today's call, so let's dive in. Starting with the secular opportunity. There is significant runway to digitize consumer and commercial flows for many years to come. As a reminder, at our last Investor Day, we shared that only 1/3 of consumer transactions were carded and the secular opportunity is even larger in commercial flows. We're targeting the secular opportunity in a way that drives outsized growth to Mastercard. For example, we continue to work with governments around the world to digitize disbursements and benefits programs, making it easier for consumers to access and use benefits and driving more volume to Mastercard. This includes food assistance programs in the United States, which represent $100 billion of spend each year. Through our exclusive partnership with Evermore, we are now rolling out a new program for beneficiaries to have a simple, more secure solution. And we're also capturing incremental transactions through our exclusive partnership with Alipay+, embedding Mastercard credentials into their network of e-wallets. This quarter, we're expanding this partnership in Mexico with Clip, a leading fintech with a small and micro business network approaching 1 million merchants. Combining Clip's merchant network, Alipay+ wallet capabilities and Mastercard's global payment capabilities is a powerful solution to digitize payments in Mexico. And that's a country where more than 70% of consumer payments are cash-based. Mastercard is exclusively tokenizing the stored wallet balances, enabling users to transact across Mastercard's global acceptance network. Complementing our efforts to drive outsized secular growth, we are finding new ways to power payments. Switching is critical to a virtuous cycle. More switch transactions lead to more data to fuel our services and increase our ability to distribute services over our network. We steadily increased our switching penetration now reaching 72%. The reason Mastercard's rich value proposition, especially compared to local networks. It's our global acceptance reach, consumer protections, digital capabilities and security overlays. We're also expanding our role in switching by flexing our network architecture. We're adapting to best meet the needs of the markets that we serve while ensuring we meet our long-term growth objectives and drive the virtuous cycle. That's exactly what we're doing in the United Arab Emirates. The Central Bank of the UAE through its subsidiary, Al Etihad Payments is partnering with Mastercard to build the switching technology in the UAE for the next phase of the country's domestic payments infrastructure. And we will serve as the prime international scheme for co-badged credit cards with the domestic scheme named Jaywan. As part of this partnership, Mastercard will provide switching services behind domestic debit and Jaywan Mastercard co-badged credit transactions in the UAE. These transactions are incremental to what we process through our global switch. Mastercard will also provide value-add services to the domestic switch, including fraud prevention and cybersecurity. Our direct relationships with ecosystem customers in the UAE continue as they do today. And that's our best-in-class technology at work locally, powering the UAE's digital economy, facilitating more transactions and further scaling our services. That is another example of how we partner locally to drive collective value. And we continue to win and expand issuing relationships across our business. In the first half of 2026, we won several hundred flips and deal expansions, which are expected to drive trillions of dollars in incremental volume to our network over the next decade. This quarter, we renewed a key partnership with JPMorgan Chase on the Chase Freedom Flex portfolio in the U.S. and in Mexico, renewed our partnership with Banamex, where we have exclusivity for nearly all portfolios, representing almost 19 million cards. We've expanded our partnership with Revolut, now supporting their affluent debit proposition, Ultra across Singapore and Australia, plus their commercial portfolio in New Zealand, all building up on our growing partnership in the U.S. and long-standing relationship globally. We flipped [ through Alliance ] Federal Credit Union, U.S. credit and debit portfolios as well as Eurobank's entire consumer and commercial portfolios in Greece. Once complete, there's over 1 million new Mastercards across the 2. We launched new co-brands with Uber and Hilton in Mexico. And with the recent flip in Saudi National Bank's travel co-brand portfolio, we're now the exclusive partner across their credit, debit, prepaid and commercial portfolios. I shared some wins that span commercial already, but let's dig into that a bit more. Mastercard's commercial debit and credit volumes grew at 12% in the second quarter. We continue to build on this momentum as banks and large corporates turn to Mastercard for modernized commercial payment capabilities. We've added, on average, 6 million new Mastercard small business cards to the market each quarter for the past several quarters. And we see incremental issuance from this quarter's wins, including Intuit in the United States. Truist Bank in the U.S. has chosen Mastercard's leading virtual card capabilities for their corporate clients' invoice-based payments needs. Also, we continue to support global money movement through Mastercard Move, most recently partnering with WeChat Pay Hong Kong and FlyRemit in India. And then in the travel space, we have an exclusive partnership with Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia's new national airline. This is an exciting global first as consumers can use their suite of branded prepaid and credit cards to purchase tickets and build brand loyalty, while travel agents benefit from seamless virtual card payments and Riyadh Air can streamline supplier payments. We're winning. Our geographic footprint, differentiated proposition and innovation allow us to capture more of the market. We have added over 230 million net new Mastercard into the market in the 12 months through quarter 2 of this year. That's new issuers, expanded relationships and even more payment transactions, more tokens, all of which we can also attach services to. So when you think about our virtuous cycle, it's real and at scale. The combination of that network scale, the breadth of our data and the depth of our customer relationships with differentiated services underpin our long-term sustainable growth. Our services benefit from Mastercard's proprietary transactional data as well as open finance, loyalty and identity trends and insights. This also includes bespoke services like consulting, marketing, both key to winning carded market share and optimizing our portfolios. For example, starting this quarter, we are managing the portfolio conversions for Westpac in Australia and Yapi Kredi in Turkey following our recent wins. We're working with Santander in the U.K. to accelerate cross-border spend through targeted marketing campaigns and our work with Bancolombia will help optimize their small business and commercial portfolios. The outcome, more payments volume. Moving to security solutions, a hot topic in today's environment. The proliferation of AI, new frontier models are amplifying new needs. We're seeing increased demand for Mastercard's robust and unique security solutions as clients navigate the ever-expanding threat landscape. Today, we have differentiated capabilities that span cybersecurity, identity and fraud. Our value suite is unmatched, and we continue to build upon it. Let me share a few examples. We're identifying threats before they materialize. How? We're bringing Recorded Futures' market-leading intelligence capabilities to our clients globally and seeing strong engagement across sectors. This quarter, we partnered with Wipro, a global information technology and consulting company to further scale our capabilities. Building upon our acquisition of Recorded Future, we also launched Mastercard Threat Intelligence, specifically for payment fraud. In its first 3 quarters, Threat Intelligence has identified more than 7 million card testing transactions across 192 countries. Stopping that activity prevented an estimated $172 million in fraud linked to malicious domains. That's real value to us, our customers and of course, our cardholders. And we're strengthening security and customer experiences, Mastercard's identity solutions help customers authenticate identities for payment and nonpayment use cases. This quarter, Rogers Communications in Canada and Delivery Hero leveraged Mastercard's identity capabilities to verify transaction authenticity, customer onboarding and more. And we continue to make commerce safer through new innovations. Mastercard Merchant Trust Services is a new suite of AI-powered capabilities to help identify fraudulent merchants. Keeping the scammers from setting up shop will reduce fraud, cut out disputes and provide greater security, the goal, real transactions for real purchases from real merchants. Our value-added services and solutions growth engine is strong and durable. We benefit from the underlying market tailwinds in security, data and AI, personalization and more. There are also natural synergies between our value-add services and solutions and our payment network. That includes distribution. Today, about 60% of our value-add services and solutions net revenue is network linked. We're attaching services to Mastercard switch transactions as well as faster-growing drivers such as tokens or card-not-present transactions. And customers are using more Mastercard services, both existing and new products. We do so through direct engagement and through distribution partners. We recently launched Mastercard Advantage Partner program and have more than 200 partners expanding our reach. All of this drives growth and expanding yields, more customers, more services adopted by each with higher contract value. That's the virtuous cycle at work, again, and that's powerful. We play a central role in commerce today, and we are shaping the future of commerce, and we're helping our customers navigate that future. Agentic Commerce is the next evolution in payments where the importance of security, transparency and control only increase. Agentic Commerce creates a significant opportunity for Mastercard. It leads to incremental transactions and even more opportunity for our services. Through Mastercard Agent Pay, we're helping power secure and trusted Agentic transactions across our global acceptance network using tokenization, Zero Liability Protection and unique dispute resolution capabilities. These capabilities are just a few of the reasons why we expect cards will prevail in an agentic world, both in consumer and commercial use cases. It's early days, but engagement across the globe is energizing. The rise of Agentic Commerce also brings about an entirely new class of payment use cases, machine-to-machine payments. This is an expansion of our addressable market and one that we are at the forefront. We recently announced Mastercard Agent Pay for machines, which enables AI agents to purchase low-value digital services such as APIs, compute, data, content at machine speed. With on-chain permissioning and off-chain settlement, Mastercard is the only network enabling machine-to-machine payments. An ecosystem is rallying behind us. At launch, we had more than 30 industry leaders participating, including Adyen [ and International ] BVNK, Checkout.com, Cloudflare, Coinbase and OKX. We are a first mover in this space and one with credibility and trust to deliver. Next is stablecoins. We believe stablecoins have great potential, but to work, there are a few essential principles for it to scale, reliability, security and interoperability, and that's what Mastercard delivers. There is clear utility for stablecoins, for example, in some B2B and P2P flows, but no problem to solve in P2M. In fact, digital asset players are choosing to partner with Mastercard to unlock trusted commerce at scale, benefiting from our global acceptance network, protections and security. We offer a wide variety of crypto co-branded propositions, and we're seeing strong traction. Our crypto co-brand volume has more than tripled over the last 2 years. This quarter, we expanded our relationships with Bitget and Kraken. Stablecoins are additive to our network. It's another opportunity for us to enable choice and how our customers and cardholders engage in commerce. We're also enabling our customers to participate in the emerging digital asset ecosystem through the creation of open standard. For our customer, it provides direct participation, reduced dependency on third parties and the benefits of distributed economics. Open USD is set to go live later this year. It's another coin that we will enable across our network. We believe this space will evolve and with it, will be a creation of digital assets, including blockchains, coins and tokenized deposits, all operating in tandem and with fiat. That's an opportunity for us. We expect to close the BVNK acquisition this quarter. With BVNK, Mastercard will serve as the trusted interoperable layer, enabling customers to send, receive, store and convert assets. BVNK's enterprise-grade payment orchestration capabilities, robust licensing and connectivity are highly differentiated, and they are in market today. So in summary, we have a proven strategy and continue to deliver consistently strong results. Our confidence is backed by proof points. We are winning. We're capturing outsized growth. We're delivering differentiated value, and we are shaping the future of commerce. That is what drives sustainable growth. Sachin, over to you one more time. Sachin Mehra: Great. Well, thank you, Michael. Look, before I jump into the numbers, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of our investors and analysts. I truly appreciate your engagement, your thoughtful questions and the support over the past 7-plus years that I've had the privilege of serving as the CFO of this company. Mastercard is a special company with so much opportunity ahead, and I'm excited to continue driving our strategy from a different seat. I'm not going very far, and our paths will cross again in a different capacity, and I look forward to it. So now let's dive in. Turning to Page 3, which shows our financial performance for the second quarter on a currency-neutral basis, excluding where applicable, special items and the impact of gains and losses on our equity investments. Net revenue was up 12%, reflecting continued growth in our payment network and our value-added services and solutions with minimal impact from dispositions. Operating expenses increased 10%, including a 1 ppt benefit from dispositions. And operating income was up 14%. Net income and EPS increased 16% and 19%, respectively, driven primarily by the strong operating income growth in the quarter. EPS was $5.04, which includes a $0.14 contribution from share repurchases. During the quarter, we repurchased $4.9 billion worth of stock and approximately $700 million of additional stock through July 27, 2026. Now turning to Page 4, where I'll speak to the growth rates of our key volume drivers for the second quarter on a local currency basis. Worldwide gross dollar volume, or GDV, increased by 8% year-over-year. In the U.S., GDV increased by 6% with credit growth of 10% and debit growth of 1%. As a reminder, the Capital One debit portfolio migration was basically complete in Q1. Excluding the impacts from that migration, our U.S. debit GDV growth would have been 8%. Outside of the U.S., GDV increased 9% with credit growth of 9% and debit growth of 10%. Cross-border volume increased 12% globally for the quarter, reflecting continued growth in both travel and non-travel-related cross-border spending. Turning to Page 5. Switched transactions grew 9% year-over-year in Q2. We continue to drive contactless penetration, which in Q2 stood at 80% of all in-person switched purchase transactions. This is up 5 ppt since the same period last year. And token penetration reached over 40% of all switched transactions this quarter. In addition, card growth was 5%. Globally, there are 3.7 billion Mastercard and Maestro-branded cards issued. Turning to Slide 6 for a look into our net revenue growth rates for the second quarter discussed on a currency-neutral basis. Payment network net revenue increased 8%, primarily driven by domestic and cross-border transaction and volume growth as well as pricing. It also includes growth in rebates and incentives. Value-added services and solutions net revenue increased 18%. This includes a minimal drag from dispositions. The increase was driven primarily by growth in our underlying drivers, strong demand for our security solutions, consumer acquisition and engagement, digital and authentication and business and market insights and pricing. Now let's turn to Page 7 to discuss key metrics related to the payment network. Again, all growth rates are described on a currency-neutral basis, unless otherwise noted. Looking quickly at each key metric. Domestic assessments were up 10%, while worldwide GDV grew 8%. The 2 ppt difference is primarily driven by pricing. Cross-border assessments increased 20%, while cross-border volumes increased 12%. The 8 ppt difference is driven primarily by pricing in international markets and mix. Transaction processing assessments were up 12%, while switched transactions grew 9%. The 3 ppt difference is primarily due to favorable mix and pricing, partially offset by lower revenue from FX volatility. And other network assessments were $326 million this quarter. Moving on to Page 8. You can see that on a non-GAAP currency-neutral basis, excluding special items, total adjusted operating expenses increased 10%, which includes a 1 ppt benefit from dispositions. The growth in operating expenses was primarily driven by spending to drive the execution of our strategic priorities, including initiatives to further harden our infrastructure, geographic expansion and product innovation. Turning to Page 9. Let me comment on the operating metric trends for Q2 and the first four weeks of July. Switch metrics were generally in line with Q1 and underlying spend remained stable. Of note, excluding Capital One debit, on a like-for-like basis, U.S. switched volume growth was 10% or 2 ppt higher sequentially. This increase was driven by higher spend on fuel and overall strong consumer and business spending. Moving to our cross-border metrics. Our overall cross-border volume growth remained healthy at 12% in the second quarter. Cross-border card-not-present ex travel remained strong at 20%, benefiting from increased card-not-present spend from Venezuela and the timing of large retail promotional events. And while cross-border travel was down sequentially, relative to the April metrics we discussed on our last earnings call, we saw improved growth in the quarter due to lower impacts from the developments in the Middle East and timing of holidays. Now as we look at the first 4 weeks of July, our metrics remain relatively stable and strong. Looking specifically at card-not-present ex travel, let's focus on July compared to June. The sequential decline is primarily driven by timing, including the large retail promotional events that happened in June this year as compared to July last year and by mix of days. Turning to Page 10. In Q2, Mastercard delivered above expectations. This strong performance was broad-based with the upside primarily driven by lower-than-anticipated impact from the challenges in the Middle East, an uptick in cross-border spend out of Venezuela, where we are market leaders and strong demand for our value-added services and solutions. These results, despite an uncertain geopolitical and economic backdrop are evidence of the resilience of our diversified business model and our continued focus on execution across both payment network and value-added services and solutions. As Michael said, we continue to see a macroeconomic environment that is generally supportive. Around the world, economies are adapting to changing conditions with consumers and businesses continuing to demonstrate resilience. This is reflected in our underlying drivers. We continue to monitor geopolitical tensions and related energy prices, along with critical economic data like unemployment, inflation and so on. But overall, the underlying fundamentals of consumer and business spending and travel remain healthy. As we look at the second half of the year, our base case continues to assume spending remains healthy. As noted earlier, impacts from the instability in the Middle East moderated throughout the second quarter and were less severe than we anticipated. As we look to the rest of the year, we estimate impacts from the Middle East conflict will remain at similar levels to what we saw towards the end of Q2. As you know, the environment in the Middle East remains dynamic. But remember, we are a diversified company, and that's true across payment products, geographies, spend categories and services. This, coupled with our continued execution, helps us navigate across a range of operating environments. Now turning to our thoughts for Q3 and the remainder of the year, which include the impacts related to the acquisition of BVNK that we expect to close in Q3. As it relates to our expectations for the third quarter of 2026, year-over-year net revenue growth is expected to be at the high end of low double-digit range on a currency-neutral basis, excluding inorganic activity. We expect a minimal impact from inorganic activity and a headwind of approximately 0.5 ppt from foreign exchange given the recent trajectory of the U.S. dollar. From an operating expense standpoint, we expect Q3 growth to be at the low double-digits range versus a year ago on a currency-neutral basis, excluding inorganic activity and special items. We anticipate a 0.5 ppt headwind from inorganic activity, while foreign exchange is forecasted to be a tailwind of approximately 0 to 0.5 ppt for the quarter. As we look to the full year of 2026, we expect net revenue growth to be at the high end of low double-digit range on a currency-neutral basis, excluding inorganic activity. Although this is the same range we shared previously, we now expect to be higher within the range than our prior expectations, largely due to our stronger first half performance. We anticipate minimal impact from inorganic activity and a tailwind of approximately 1 ppt from foreign exchange. As it relates to operating expenses, year-over-year growth is expected to remain at the low double-digits range versus a year ago on a currency-neutral basis, excluding inorganic activity and special items. We expect a minimal impact from inorganic activity and a headwind of 0.5 to 1 ppt from foreign exchange on a full-year basis. Other items to keep in mind. On other income and expense, in Q3, we expect an expense of approximately $125 million. This is higher sequentially, driven primarily by incremental interest expense related to our bond issuance in June. This excludes gains and losses on our equity investments, which are excluded from our non-GAAP metrics. And finally, we expect a non-GAAP tax rate in the range of 20% to 21% for both Q3 and Q4. And with that, I will turn the call back over to Devin. Devin Corr: Thank you. Julianne, you may now open the queue for questions. Operator: And our first question comes from Ramsey El-Assal from Cantor Fitzgerald. Ramsey El-Assal: I wanted to ask you about stablecoins and Agentic Commerce sort of together. They're both sort of focus areas for you. You commented on it in your prepared remarks. Do you see use cases in Agentic that will require stablecoins, something like micro transactions perhaps? Or can traditional Mastercard credentials basically fulfill all the use cases that stablecoins can? I'm just trying to figure out whether there's a unique value proposition you're looking to solve for with stablecoins. Michael Miebach: Right. Thank you for that question, Ramsey. So as we were laying out earlier, we're innovating around the future of payments, and these are 2 areas that will shape the future of payments, Agentic Commerce and stablecoins. Let me start off by talking just Agentic Commerce and then we see how transactions can flow in Agentic Commerce. So there is your -- the consumer-oriented use cases in Agentic Commerce where our keyword search turns changes, and we may use agents for that. That could be an LLM, that could be a first-party agent by a large retailer. And there are transactions that are out and delegated to agents and that can happen very well through the existing card networks. What you need for that is that's what merchants always need. They need reach. They need predictable user experiences. That's the same. That's true for consumers. So we really believe that cards will prevail in that world. This is a tremendous opportunity for us also on the services side through tokenization, inside tokens and so forth. We talked about this many times. The card infrastructure and the card ecosystem and the Mastercard proposition within that is unique. It's unique because we have additional capabilities that we put into the agent pay protocol from us, and one of them is verifiable intent, which allows you to basically challenge a transaction, say, I never wanted to buy this and then the chargeback process can kick back in. This was innovated together with Google. So there are some unique propositions here on the agent pay side, but it just basically comes back to the main point that cards can prevail there. Now if you look on the B2B side, you can see there's a range of Agentic Commerce transactions that can happen where you have an agent that does purchasing for a company that can very well happen on the card ecosystem, very similar to what I just said on the consumer side. Amounts, speed, purposes, they will need the protections, they need the global reach, all of that can apply, and we believe that's a continued opportunity for us, particularly on the services side again. Now there could be an entirely new range of transactions, and that is machine-to-machine payments. That is low ticket, micro ticket transaction that happens at very high velocity. And for that, we can see a world emerging where different kind of underlying infrastructure is required. And for that, we've put out our protocol, which is an evolution of agent pay, which is agent pay for machines. This is the only network protocol that's out there today to facilitate that. Now the underlying infrastructure for that, we've mapped it out. You can start to see that there is a transaction that is recognized from one agent to another, these machines talking to each other, but the settlement happens to different kinds of rails. That could involve stable coins, but it also could involve different types of settlements. We're actually quite open to that. But what it needs is the immediacy of these agents to recognize that transaction. And that is what Agent Pay for Machines actually does. So there is a connect with stablecoins. You could see that stablecoins play a role, but not the only thing. Stable coins on the other hand, for us is a separate topic generally. It will play a role in the financial ecosystem of the future, which is why we have been investing. Our current approach on stablecoins is really facilitating that you can spend your crypto balances if you still want to your stablecoin balances that you purchase the same. We facilitated settlement in our networks. If that is so wanted, we facilitate money movements using stable coins to drive immediacy really and transparency of cost. But it's also true that stablecoin isn't the answer to everything because you still need protections, you still need acceptance and you still need to kind of find your way into fiat. We expect the world of multiplicity, many coins, many chains. And all of that needs a trusted interoperable layer because people will transact across different coins and so forth. And that is what BVNK will do for us. Sachin mentioned it, we're going to -- we're expecting to close the BVNK acquisition. So that is another tremendous opportunity for us. Across the whole thing, there's still a services opportunity for us, that's a lot more than you asked for, Ramsey, but it is all very important. We're very excited about it. And the 2 topics very much to your questions, they do interlink. Operator: Our next question comes from Sanjay Sakhrani from KBW. Sanjay Sakhrani: Congratulations again. Sachin, I have a question for you on the acceleration you saw in cross-border from April to June and into July. I know you mentioned the impact of the Middle East conflict being lower, but it seems like a pretty sizable lift. So I'm curious if the World Cup had any play in that and factored into that? And then should we expect some moderation? And obviously, anything else to call out? Sachin Mehra: Sure, Sanjay. So a couple of things to actually talk to as it relates to the trends we saw between April, May and June. Certainly, you saw a recovery in terms of cross-border travel in the Middle East. Now just to give you a little bit of color as to what we're seeing in the Middle East broadly speaking. So we did see better spending trends as it relates to outbound from the impacted GCC countries into other parts of the globe. Hard to identify whether that's necessarily tied to the World Cup or not, but we saw trends which were starting to actually present themselves across both consumer spending and commercial spending. So for me, the way I kind of think about it is greater confidence in terms of how people are actually doing that outbound spend. That's also tied, by the way, to increasing capacity from flights and airlines and things of that sort. So that's important to recognize. The other thing which has been supportive of cross-border during the quarter has been Venezuela. And I called this out in my prepared remarks. Important to understand what's going on there. I think all of you are aware that we deconsolidated our Venezuela operations in 2018, where we deconsolidated revenue and we deconsolidated volumes at that point in time, primarily due to the fact that it was a very challenged repatriation environment at that point in time. So the ability to actually get U.S. dollars from Venezuela was challenged. But what we've seen is actually very interesting because over the course of the first quarter and particularly going into the second quarter, there has become an increased availability of U.S. dollars in Venezuela. And what that's effectively meant is that consumers have greater access to U.S. dollars, and they're utilizing those U.S. dollars for their cross-border spending, mostly in what we call card-not-present ex travel. So that's less about travel. That's more about card-not-present ex travel. And those U.S. -- also just to kind of just put a bow around it, we are the market leaders as it relates to Venezuela, and it's primarily a debit market. So that's where you're seeing that spend come through. So what you're seeing is the impact of both that more -- I should say, lower than April effect, which came through in May and June as it relates to outbound travel from the Middle East, but what you're also seeing is the trends from Venezuela, which have been holding up pretty well, to be honest with you. So this is a competitive differentiator for us. We are the market leaders. And as you've seen the U.S. dollar availability come into play, you've seen that volume come through in terms of what we're seeing in card-not-present ex travel there. Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Jeffrey from William Blair. Andrew Jeffrey: I wanted to drill down perhaps a little bit, Michael, on some of the domestic switching comments you made. I think the UAE initiative, in particular, is pretty compelling. What other markets are you targeting for those kinds of solutions? And I wonder if, given all of Mastercard's capabilities, Europe is potentially ripe despite their closed-loop initiatives for the same kind of solutions. Michael Miebach: Great question, important topic. So I want to take you back -- I might get slightly shorter than previous answer, I think. I'll make it -- I'll take you back to 2022 though. This was a time when we were in COVID, and we said with everything that's going on, it's important to invest in the resilience of our business. And we put a particular focus on a technology strategy really with the goal to allow us to run anything anywhere. So that's what we did at the time, and it drove the modularity of our network. And that instance in the UAE is exactly that. So we're basically running a part of the switch in the UAE, and it gives us access to transactions that we didn't have before. So it's a good partnership from that perspective, upside for us, but it gives that resilience and global technology to the UAE, tremendous partnership. It's not the only partnership though, where we have that. We have different versions of that, but always coming back to it has to work from a technology perspective, has to work from an economics perspective, the give and take has to work for us. But then we can get access to more transactions, which fuel our virtuous cycle, as I said before, we've done something like this in South Africa, where we built a real-time payment switch that can actually carry anything. It can carry any ISO 2022 transaction, can carry a card transaction. So this is the kind of technology that we have or we are in the process of making available in Europe. Now Europe it's a very competitive market with lots of payment choices for consumers there on the P2P side, on the card side. The digital euro is in the making. There's a lot going on in Europe. So we feel very good that we have this technology that allows us to partner in different ways. For now, we are very well positioned with our card proposition in Europe. We used to be Euro card. So we have deep European routes, and we're competing very effectively today. As far as there are these local alternatives, various local gyros and so forth, a lot of co-batch partnerships. We partner with the wallets like Swish in Sweden, like Bizum in Spain. So a wide set of options right now. At this point in time, we bring the most value through our card propositions, but we have the flexibility to do what we need to do should the time come and we find better engagements. So that's how I look at it. You go into Asia, you see in the stand, there are partnerships that we have with switches and so forth in other parts of the world. So this run anything anywhere concept is really important for us to see where the world is going, but always comes down to our economic principles, apply our services, economics and standard technology that we can use, so we don't have a 1,000 flowers bloom kind of landscape for us. Operator: Our next question comes from Dan Dolev from Mizuho. Dan Dolev: Great quarter. Congrats, Michael and Sachin. I have a question about VAS, specifically about cyber demand. So we think given what we're seeing in security software, [indiscernible] is driving very strong demand for cyber demand. Can you maybe unpack the upside to that from -- for Mastercard because it should be a pretty big catalyst in our view. Michael Miebach: Right. So on the safety and security part of our portfolio, great question, Dan. So you know we have gone much deeper than other market participants on the cyber side, recognizing that as the world digitizes faster, clearly, that's an underlying growth driver for us, a tailwind for us. There is more demand. We initially started out in fraud. We're now in fraud and identity, and we're in cyber. That is the portfolio. Those are the 3 big categories. On the cyber side, we've strengthened our proposition with the addition of Recorded Future. So that's what the portfolio is. Currently, when you think about what is occupying the minds of CEOs, what's occupying the minds of directors in the boardroom, it is cybersecurity. And the recent discussions around frontier models and how do you go about them? Is it more of a threat or is it actually a helpful tool for us to identify vulnerabilities in your company's technology. It's a bit of both. And we have been engaging from day 1 on that. So from all of this puts cyber into the kind of the center of the discussion. We have strong relationships with cyber and a lot of our customers really through the fraud side. So that is a natural growth path for us to engage the CISO and talk about the expanded capabilities that we have, while at the same time, the CEO talks to the CISO and say, "What are we doing to protect ourselves?" So it all comes together in the moment. We're meeting the moment with this portfolio. When I was talking earlier about threat intelligence, here, with this ever-expanding threat landscape, it is almost impossible for any company to meet every fraud risk that potentially is. So what you really need to know is you have to have targeted information on how you might be targeted and what is the vector, the threat vector that applies to you the most, so you can actually focus there. That's very much what Recorded Future does today. So if you take all of that together, I think we're in a good position here. As far as our own cybersecurity goes, of course, we have found that leveraging the latest frontier models help us accelerate identifying vulnerabilities. And we take those learnings and those best practices on how to do that and share that with our customers around the world so that we can keep the whole ecosystem safer. So fundamentally, a strong trend for us. But let's not forget, it's not maybe that sexy, but everyday fraud. I'll give you that example on the $172 million of fraud prevented on malicious domains. All that is powering our cybersecurity business today and it's attached to the transaction growth that we talked about all the transactions that we're going after. This is a flywheel that is very much needed right now. Obviously, fraud and cyber risk are not a good thing, but they happen to be a part of a business that we're very good at. So we're helping our customers with that. Operator: Our next question comes from Harshita Rawat from Bernstein. Harshita Rawat: I want to ask about Europe. It's a very important region for you. If I look at purchase volumes, it used to grow in the mid-teens and now the growth has decelerated a little bit. Maybe talk about the drivers there in terms of macro, competitive environment, local dynamics. And I know there's a little bit of a smaller contribution from [indiscernible] conversions as well. And how should we think about the growth in the region? Sachin Mehra: Harshita, I just want to make sure I'm clear as which region you're talking about. I didn't quite pick up. You said Europe? Okay. Devin Corr: Europe. Sachin Mehra: All right. So look, I mean, yes. Okay. Look, I mean, at the end of the day, our business in Europe continues to perform exceedingly well. We are very much in the space of working very closely with our customers to deliver a ton of value, and they're seeing that come through in the nature of the partnerships, which we've got there. I'm going to take you back a few years to talk a little bit about all the wins we had in Europe and because a lot of that kind of explains the trend which you're talking about right here. Because if you look at the trend in terms of purchase volumes in Europe, right, I mean, back in Q2 of 2024, we were growing at 16%. At that point in time, what you were seeing was the tailwind of all of these wins come through, whether it was Santander or the fact that we've got wins with NatWest or UniCredit, you name it, all of that stuff was coming through in those quarters, which was giving us the lift in terms of the share wins. Naturally, what's going to happen after that, if you're looking at comparable growth rates on a sequential basis, you're going to start to see the lapping effect of that come through. So that's certainly a factor which explains what's going on there. And then we've been pretty clear about what kind of deals we want to win and what kind of deals we're going to actually pursue. There have been deals which we have competed for, but we've done it within the realm of what we thought made good financial sense for us. And if it didn't work out, we've actually passed on it. For example, in Lloyds Credit. We know we've deliberately actually decided to go to a certain point in time, after which you have to kind of make a call as to whether it makes economic sense or doesn't make economic sense for the company. And that's what we did. So you're seeing that come through as well in the nature of the roll-off of those volumes, very much the case. That discipline is something we're going to adopt and have always adopted because it's really, really important for us. Volume for the sake of volume is not what this company should be chasing. Profitable volume, which is going to drive higher net revenue yield is what we're going to chase. And we're going to do it in a manner which works well for our partners to drive higher growth for our partners. So I'll just give you -- and you know this, but I'll just say this anecdotally, winning share of a portfolio which is growing at 1% helps me in the first year and then is a huge drag on growth for the years thereafter. And so if you can't really grow the portfolio, it doesn't really matter. So that is very much the philosophy we adopt. So I know you asked the question broadly around Europe and trends, but you also asked about the competitive environment. And hopefully, that gives you a little bit of color on the mindset that we adopt in terms of how we're actually running our business. Operator: Our next question comes from Tien-Tsin Huang from JPMorgan. Tien-Tsin Huang: Congrats, Sachin. On the U.S. growth, quite healthy here. Just curious how broad-based that is? Any difference in income bands to call out? Because again, that 10% ex cost of Capital One is really quite strong. Just trying to get a sense of it has legs. Sachin Mehra: Yes, sure, Tien-Tsin. Look, I mean, at the end of the day, the business continues to perform really well. The strong underlying consumer and business spending, which we are seeing in the U.S. There has been a tailwind, which has come on account of higher fuel prices. So let's recognize that. You probably have some impact coming through from the World Cup as well as it relates to the second quarter in particular. Hard to really quantify what that is just because it's like we can't really identify exactly what that is. But I would tell you, the underlying consumer and business spending trends continue to hold up well in the U.S. And to your point, if I look at it, it's broad-based. We see it across credit and debit. We see it across consumer and commercial. And look, I mean, the teams are busy. They're busy with our customers, helping drive the growth of the customers, which at the end of the day is what matters, right? So because our customers grow, we bring our services assets to them, help them grow their portfolios, which is accretive from a volume standpoint, but also from a revenue standpoint. So we're certainly seeing that come through. On your question about mass versus affluent, Tien-Tsin, I would say they're holding up well both across mass and affluent, certainly in the U.S. but across the world as well. We try and track the best we can as it relates to what we're seeing in spending patterns based on the product quotes that are out in the market, which serve the different categories of customers. And when we look at that, we're seeing generally strong trends across both mass and affluent. What you do tend to see is higher growth in the affluent side of spending, but that's kind of not a new phenomenon. That's been with us for some time now. Operator: Our next question comes from Rayna Kumar from Oppenheimer. Rayna Kumar: I noticed you had a nice acceleration in APMEA in your payments volume, so 11% from 9% in the last quarter. Just wondering what the dynamics are there and if that type of growth is sustainable in the region going forward? Sachin Mehra: Yes, Rayna. So a couple of things to keep in mind. Underlying growth continues to perform well in APMEA as the broader region is known right here. The step-up that you're seeing between Q1 and Q2 is driven by a couple of factors. Number one, there's a lapping effect. You'll remember last year in the second quarter, we had highlighted that there was some moderation in select markets in the Middle East. So you're lapping that effect come through in terms of the growth rate. And then you've also got the impact of fuel, which is coming through in terms of trends. And that's not true only in APMEA. That's true broad-based actually, the impact of higher fuel prices. But not to take away from the fact that the business continues to do well, and we continue to actually drive good growth across the portfolio there. Operator: Our next question comes from Tim Chiodo from UBS. Timothy Chiodo: I want to also touch on the cyber fraud and identity portion of the value-added services portfolio. There's a key underlying word or theme that I think we could maybe hit on here, which is the agnostic -- basically the products being very agnostic from 2 ways. One is across card networks and the other is even across nonpayments use cases, many of which you alluded to earlier. I was hoping you could talk about that aspect of these services. And a minor, minor numbers question related to this. There's been a few acquisitions and dispositions since you last gave the mix of value-added services from this category. It was around 40% before. If there's been any minor update to that mix, that would be appreciated as well. Michael Miebach: Okay. So let me take the first part while Sachin thinks about the mix. So of course, the cybersecurity -- sorry, the safety security portfolio that we have, cuts across a number of dimensions. So as I said before, it started off in card fraud and then it branched out into -- from card fraud into identity, into threat intelligence, cybersecurity at large and so forth. But to your point, there is the other dimension is now fraud doesn't only happen on cards, account-to-account scams and account takeover threats and so forth. This is all the reality, unfortunately, today. So there is a tremendous opportunity for us to engage our customers there. Now cards live in an ecosystem. And here, to come to a common fraud solutions through our rules is something that's a little easier than the account-to-account side where this is infrastructure. But we have learned through Vocalink and our real-time payment expertise, how to do this now in account-to-account payments. And that is the first step that we've done there to prevent account-to-account fraud through kind of like a consortium approach with the banks in the U.K. and that is a good first step. So that's a bit earlier on its journey, but a significant opportunity that we see going forward. Sachin Mehra: Yes. And Tim, on your question on mix, just to reiterate, what Michael mentioned in his script was that approximately 60% of our VAS revenue is network linked. And if your question is, how does acquisitions and dispositions impact that? Well, the reality is a lot of the acquisitions which are there, if they're in the security space tend to be network linked for the most part. So as we do more and we start to roll them out in the market and drive the synergistic impact of that, you might see some level of proportionate increase in terms of the network-linked revenues, which are there. But that being said, the remaining 40% also continues to grow at a healthy clip. So just to be clear, right, I mean, things we're doing from a marketing services standpoint continues to be actually a key contributor to our VAS growth. So it's important, right, to actually keep in perspective that, that balance of moving away from 60% is not going to change by 1 or 2 acquisitions. But there's a very deliberate and intended kind of focus to make sure we've got good balance in terms of how our VAS revenues are generated. Michael Miebach: I can just add one more point on that. So take Recorded Future, for example. So this is not necessarily network delivered on a stand-alone basis, but through Mastercard Threat Intelligence, actually, it is. But here, the key point is when we make an acquisition, so what we bring it -- what we oftentimes try to do is use the network. That is one option. Sachin just touched on that. But there are the kind of products that we sell in a one-on-one engagement or through distribution partners, but they still benefit from Mastercard's unique features for mostly through our data. So we bring together the data of the respective acquisition with our data, and that makes a huge difference in terms of this is not just us inserting the company and having some sales synergies. We have more structural synergies out of that. And that's generally kind of target that we are looking for. Operator: Our next question comes from James Faucette from Morgan Stanley. James Faucette: I wanted to circle back to the open standard and that initiative. And one of the questions we've gotten a lot from investors is how we should think about the governance and governance and development road map there? And what kinds of initial use cases we should anticipate and think about as that moves forward? Michael Miebach: All right. So open standard, living up to the name open. So here is a set of company, 140-plus companies that have come together to create a consortium that facilitates the open USD coin, which has a couple of aspects to it. It's neutral market utility. It's with a focus on value exchange and payments. And it's a governance structure that is fairly straightforward with these companies around the table. Not obviously, not every 140 participants will have a very specific say on that. Otherwise, we wouldn't move anything forward. So this is what is currently being played out in more detail. But broadly speaking, the focus will be on payment use cases. It will be ensuring that the economics can be distributed and everybody can participate. Those are some of the underlying unique features of that. And hence, we've seen all of the interest. For us, this is important, but it's not the only thing that we're doing. The key point, and I said it in my prepared remarks is this will be one coin that will be enabled on our network, and we will enable other coins. We are working with USDC today, USDG and so forth. And choice has always been a key criteria and will be the same here in stable coins. So going forward, important initiative. We're happy we're part of that from the beginning, but we will engage with various other stablecoin consortia around the world, ensure choice and a balanced market. Devin Corr: Maybe one last question, Julianne. Operator: Certainly. Our last question today will come from Matthew O'Neill from Bank of America. Matthew O'Neill: Congrats again, Sachin. Maybe a couple of housekeeping questions just to round out after a lot of good thematic ones. Anything to call out or point to with respect to the rebates and incentive trend as a percent of gross payments revenue through the back half of the year? Obviously, this is relatively hard to predict and sometimes lumpy. And along those lines, anything that we should prep for with respect to the timing or impact of the BVNK deal closure through the back half of the year as well? Sachin Mehra: Sure. So first on your question on rebates and incentives, for Q2, our rebates and incentives actually came in pretty much in line with what our expectations were. So that's kind of pretty much on point. As it relates to Q3, we expect that our rebates and incentives as a percentage of our payment network assessments will be slightly higher than it was in Q2. Look, I mean, at the end of the day, like you said, it's hard to predict because it's largely based on timing of deals and deal performance and things of that sort. But all of that being said, at the end of the day, what we're most focused on is making sure that we've got a rich pipeline of deals and that we are executing on the same, which is where we are right now. We have a rich pipeline. We're executing on that pipeline. And it's in that vein that I've shared this third quarter kind of outlook for where I see rebates and incentives. As it relates to the BVNK closure, as Michael mentioned, we expect the acquisition to close in Q3. That is contemplated in what we've shared with you in our recs with our -- the materials which are posted today. So you can see the impact come through. Minimal impact from a net revenue standpoint. There's some impact from an operating expense standpoint, but all of that's contemplated in what we've shared with you in our recs. Devin Corr: Michael, any closing comments? Michael Miebach: Yes. So I want to chime in. Sachin got so many congratulations. I'll do it one more time. Congratulations. Thank you for this last call. And Ling Hai, looking forward to working with you. Congrats to you as well. Ling Hai: Well, thank you, Michael. I'm very excited about the new job, and I look forward to leading the next earnings call with you, but also my gratitude to Sachin for being such a wonderful CFO. And for those of you on the call, for all the investors and analysts, I look forward to engaging more with all of you. Thank you. Michael Miebach: So that leads me to do one important thing, and that is thank our employees around the world who do everything and make everything happen that we just shared with you and also to thank you for your trust and support of Mastercard. Talk to you next quarter. Thank you very much. Sachin Mehra: Thank you. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Mastercard, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Mastercard wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $397,405!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,344,091!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 953% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 214% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 7, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Mastercard. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Mastercard (MA) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

By Jarrett Banks Corpay (NYSE: CPAY) delivered another strong quarter of double-digit organic revenue growth. But increasingly, investors are keyed into management’s capital allocation strategy as a top reason to own the stock. Several analyst notes pointed out that Corpay is evolving into one of the payments industry’s premier capital compounders. JPMorgan said investors should focus on the company’s ability to consistently generate excess cash and deploy it at attractive returns rather than simply evaluating quarterly revenue and earnings results. The bank raised its price target to $470 and raised earnings estimates, citing growing confidence in both operating execution and future capital deployment. At the center of that thesis is CEO Ron Clarke’s long-term financial framework. Management continues to target more than 10% annual organic revenue growth, low-teens pre-tax profit growth and more than 20% annual cash EPS growth. Supporting those objectives is an estimated $15 billion of deployable capital generated through annual free cash flow and expanding debt capacity as earnings continue to grow. Management has made clear that capital will be allocated based on whichever opportunity creates the greatest shareholder value. That could mean acquiring additional Corporate Payments businesses similar to Alpha Group and AvidXchange, or aggressively repurchasing Corpay shares if they offer superior returns. Mr. Clarke even suggested the company could potentially buy back roughly half of its outstanding shares over time if valuations remain attractive. That flexibility significantly expands Corpay’s long-term earnings potential, with JPMorgan noting that if attractive acquisition opportunities emerge, Corpay has demonstrated an ability to integrate businesses that enhance both growth and margins. If acquisitions become less compelling, management has the financial capacity to redirect billions of dollars toward buybacks, providing another avenue to accelerate earnings per share. The company’s operating performance continues to support that strategy. Second-quarter revenue increased 21% to $1.34 billion while organic revenue grew 10% for a fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit expansion. Adjusted earnings per share climbed 36% to $7, allowing management to raise full-year guidance while maintaining its target of approximately 10% organic revenue growth. Corporate Payments remains the primary engine behind that growth. The segment generated 16% organic revenue growth for the second consecutive quarter and now represents approximately 41% of total company revenue, reaching management’s original year-end mix target ahead of schedule. Analysts cited continued Alpha integration, improving contributions from AvidXchange and healthy customer activity as evidence that the business continues gaining momentum. Another important piece of the story is Corpay’s portfolio transformation. The company continues selling businesses it considers non-core while directing more investment toward Corporate Payments, where returns are significantly higher. Analysts generally viewed the Epyx divestiture and previous asset sales as evidence that management is sharpening the company’s focus around its highest-value businesses. That strategic repositioning has prompted analysts across Wall Street to raise both earnings estimates and price targets. Baird, Raymond James, KBW, Oppenheimer, UBS, Deutsche Bank, RBC and Cantor Fitzgerald all highlighted Corpay’s durable double-digit organic growth, improving business mix and disciplined capital allocation as reasons the company could continue outperforming over the next several years. Corpay is no longer being judged solely as a payments processor capable of producing reliable earnings growth. Increasingly, analysts view it as a disciplined capital allocator capable of compounding shareholder value through a combination of consistent operating execution, strategic acquisitions, portfolio optimization and opportunistic share repurchases. And the company’s ability to deploy capital could become an even more powerful driver of future returns than routinely drive stellar quarterly earnings. Contact: Exec Edge [email protected] Click HERE to follow us on LinkedIn The post Corpay’s Price Target Raised by Brokers After Earnings Beat appeared first on ExecEdge.

The fintech company said the partnership will integrate Mastercard Merchant Cloud into Fiserv Commerce Hub. The integrated solution is designed to simplify payment operations, accelerate expansion into new markets, and improve payment performance for eligible merchants. According to data from Fiscal.ai, analysts expect the company to post earnings per share of $1.92 on revenue of $5.04 billion. Fiserv, Inc. (FISV) on Tuesday announced a global partnership with Mastercard Inc. (MA) to expand on a suite of integrated value-added services. The fintech company said the partnership will integrate Mastercard Merchant Cloud into Fiserv Commerce Hub to give merchants a single connection to Mastercard’s advanced services across online, mobile and in-store channels. See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox The announcement comes shortly before Fiserv is slated to announce its second-quarter results, expected on Thursday. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits softened a bit, with traders debating whether the company can deliver on full-year targets. The integrated solution is designed to simplify payment operations, accelerate expansion into new markets, and improve payment performance for eligible merchants. “Merchants shouldn’t have to choose between leading in today’s market and preparing for tomorrow’s,” Chiro Aikat, co-president, Americas, Mastercard, said in a statement. “By bringing Mastercard’s advanced merchant services into Fiserv Commerce Hub, including capabilities that will help power the next era of agentic commerce, we’re giving merchants innovation that helps them grow and stay ahead of a rapidly changing digital economy.” “Together, Fiserv and Mastercard are helping merchants address the growing complexity of commerce,” Lia Cao, Chief Revenue Officer, Merchant Solutions at Fiserv said. “This partnership combines complementary strengths to offer expanded capabilities for eligible enterprise merchants while supporting access to additional markets, customers and commerce opportunities, where available.” According to data from Fiscal.ai, analysts expect the company to post earnings per share of $1.92 on revenue of $5.04 billion. This implies a 22% decline in EPS and about 3% decline in revenues from the comparable period of the previous year. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around FISV stock dropped from ‘bullish’ to ‘neutral’ over 24 hours, even as message volumes surged 220% in the same time. Investors actively discussed whether the company would be able to meet its full-year 2026 guidance. The company is targeting adjusted and organic revenue growth of 1% to 3% and an adjusted earnings per share of $8 to $8.30 One user said that FISV’s historical numbers indicate that “There is 0% chance they reach said guidance unless q2 is a total blow out.” Another user pointed out, “$FISV if $FIS got crushed for lowering guidance by 0.5% then what do you think will happen to fisv when we cut guidance. We may be $30 fisv.” FISV stock last closed at $55.78. However, a third user said, “$FISV everyone saying Fiserv will get crushed when the lower guidance. Let’s get the facts straight, if you’ve been in the stock market at all you know they would never lower guidance in Q2 it would most likely be next quarter. People have no clue what they’re talking about, guidence will stay the same.” FISV stock is down nearly 15% this year. For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com. Aashika Suresh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. StockTwits' news team content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. For more, see our editorial policy. This article was originally published on StockTwits. Related: DEI Q2 2026 Earnings Summary Duos Technologies to Participate at the 23rd Annual Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference Duos Technologies Receives $50.4 Million from APR Energy Asset Sale

Global Payments Inc. GPN reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.46, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.45. The bottom line rose 12% year over year. Adjusted net revenues improved 33.8% year over year to $3.2 billion. The top line missed the consensus mark by 0.4%. The quarterly earnings benefited from continued adoption of the Genius platform and the company's strategic transformation into a focused commerce solutions provider. However, higher operating expenses partly offset these gains. Global Payments Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Global Payments Inc. Quote Adjusted operating income of $1.3 billion increased 25.9% year over year in the second quarter. Adjusted operating margin expanded 70 basis points (bps) year over year on a normalized basis to 42%. Total operating expenses of $3 billion increased 89.3% year over year in the second quarter. The increase was due to higher selling, general and administrative expenses, and cost of service. Interest and other expenses rose 81.9% year over year to $277.5 million. Global Payments exited the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $5.4 billion, which decreased from $8.3 billion at 2025-end. Total assets of $63.6 billion rose from $53.3 billion at 2025-end. Long-term debt amounted to $21.5 billion compared with $19.5 billion at 2025-end. The current portion of long-term debt totaled $925 million at the second-quarter end. Total equity of $23.8 billion rose from $23.6 billion at 2025-end. Operating activities used $373.8 million of cash in the first six months of 2026 compared with $1.4 billion provided by operating activities in the prior-year period. GPN repurchased shares worth $1.2 billion in the first half of 2026. The company declared a quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share, which will be paid out on Sept. 25, 2026, to its shareholders of record as of Sept. 11, 2026. Constant-currency adjusted net revenue growth, excluding dispositions, is expected to be 4-5% in 2026. Constant-currency adjusted EPS growth is expected to be 11-13% in 2026. GPN expects to convert approximately 90% of adjusted net income into adjusted free cash flow. Annual adjusted operating margin is expected to expand by approximately 150 basis points in 2026. GPN currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. How Did Peers Perform? Several companies in the business services space, including Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. FIS, Visa Inc. V and Mastercard Incorporated MA, have reported their financial results for the June quarter of 2026. Here’s how they have performed: Fidelity National reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.48, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.7%. The bottom line advanced 8.8% year over year. Revenues amounted to $3.4 billion, which improved 29% year over year. The top line missed the consensus mark by 0.2%. FIS’ quarterly earnings were driven by strong growth in the Banking Solutions segment and steady performance in the Capital Market Solutions segment, along with recurring revenue growth. However, the upside was partly offset by a higher expenses. Visa delivered third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share, which rose 11% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. Net revenues were $11.63 billion, rising 14% year over year. Visa’s quarterly results reflected resilient spending trends, higher cross-border volumes and solid network activity, including a 10% year-over-year increase in payments volume on a constant-dollar basis. The upside was partly offset by increased operating expenses. Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $5.04, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.7%. The bottom line improved 21.4% year over year. Net revenues advanced 14.1% year over year to $9.3 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.4%. Mastercard’s quarterly results benefited from strong cross-border volume growth, increased switched transactions and robust demand for value-added services. The upside was partly offset by higher payment network rebates from renewed deals and an escalating operating expense level. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Global Payments Inc. (GPN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Seth Klarman's Baupost Group bought $212 million in Visa shares while Mastercard trades at a five-point forward P/E premium for the same network economics. Visa's earlier stablecoin settlement infrastructure and four consecutive EPS beats strengthen its case if crypto rails eventually compress card-network margins. Soros Fund Management countered Klarman by opening a fresh Mastercard stake, showing elite investors remain split on which network wins. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Visa didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Seth Klarman's Baupost Group opened a new position in Visa (NYSE:V) during the first quarter of 2026, disclosing 701,355 shares valued at $211,978,000 in the 13F filed May 15, 2026. That stake ran roughly 4.14% of the disclosed portfolio, which for a manager who has spent four decades apologizing for the stocks he owns is a loud way to plant a flag. Klarman is a patience-first allocator. Baupost's letters return to the same themes year after year: margin of safety, patience, avoiding businesses whose economics can be undone by a single regulation or a single competitor. A fresh Visa position at these prices suggests he sees the card-network duopoly as more durable than the current stablecoin panic implies. Mastercard (NYSE:MA) already sits in almost every diversified portfolio a retirement investor owns, so the interesting question is why a value investor with Klarman's discipline chose the other rail. Visa's most recent quarter, reported July 28, 2026, showed net revenue of $11.63 billion, up 14.4% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $3.32 against a $3.23 consensus. That was the fourth consecutive EPS beat. Data processing revenue rose 17%, cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe rose 12% on a constant-dollar basis, and management repurchased about 14.5 million shares at an average price of $331, with $28.4 billion of buyback authorization remaining. Mastercard's own quarter was strong. Nobody is arguing MA is broken. The question is relative value. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Visa didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Visa trades at a trailing P/E near 31x and a forward P/E around 24x. Mastercard trades at a trailing P/E near 31x and a forward P/E around 29x. Same duopoly, similar margins, and the market is charging you meaningfully more per dollar of forward earnings to own Mastercard. That spread is the thesis in a single number. Where the two diverge in narrative is stablecoin settlement. Visa has run issuer settlement on public stablecoin rails for several years, while Mastercard has positioned later through its Multi-Token Network and bank-gateway approach. Neither company has publicly attributed any fund's trade to this gap, and Klarman did not either. Still, if stablecoin settlement compresses card economics over the next decade, being early on the infrastructure side is worth something, and Visa was early. Elite managers did not move in one direction. Soros Fund Management opened a new Mastercard position of 30,452 shares valued at $15,215,646 in the same filing set, a reminder that reasonable managers still see the trade both ways. Klarman's Visa commitment was the larger and more prominent of the two flags planted last quarter, and Baupost's reputation for concentration on high-conviction ideas is what gives it weight. For a Mastercard holder heading into retirement, both networks still compound, and the position is worth keeping. But if you already own the widely-held name and are steering fresh capital, Klarman's position is a defensible template. Follow the thesis. Visa's cheaper forward earnings and earlier stablecoin footprint justify new money at these prices, rather than the trade itself. You should keep in mind that the difference between Mastercard and Visa remains small. Over both the long term and the short term, both companies have been almost neck-and-neck. Any differences you will notice are usually in the single digits and are not worth fretting over. If V stock goes down, so will MA, and vice versa. That said, if you are searching for slightly more gains and a barely cheaper stock on a forward earnings basis, I'd go with V stock over MA. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Visa didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. FIS reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.48, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.7%. The bottom line advanced 8.8% year over year. Revenues amounted to $3.4 billion, which improved 29% year over year. The top line missed the consensus mark by 0.2%. The quarterly earnings were driven by strong growth in the Banking Solutions segment and steady performance in the Capital Market Solutions segment, supported by recurring revenue growth, margin expansion and acquisition benefits. However, the upside was partly offset by a higher cost of revenues and increased selling, general and administrative expenses. Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. Quote The cost of revenues increased 32.4% year over year to $2.2 billion in the second quarter. SG&A expenses of $684 million rose 19.6% year over year. Net interest expenses of $200 million increased 81.8% from the prior-year quarter’s figure. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.4 billion, up 35% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 193 basis points year over year to 41.7%, primarily driven by acquisitions, a favorable business mix and cost savings initiatives. Revenues from the Banking Solutions segment totaled $2.5 billion, increasing 44% year over year and matching the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The segmental results benefited from solid margin expansion. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 179 bps year over year to 45.8%, supported by cost management and a favorable revenue mix. The Capital Market Solutions segment’s revenues advanced 3.5% year over year to $810 million, marginally missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.2%. Strong recurring revenue growth benefited the metric. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 51.9% contracted 32 bps year over year. The Corporate and Other segment recorded revenues of $84 million, down 26% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $147 million. Fidelity National exited the second quarter of 2026 with cash and cash equivalents of $744 million, up from $599 million as of 2025-end. Total assets of $44.1 billion increased from $33.5 billion at the end of 2025. Long-term debt, excluding the current portion, amounted to $15.4 billion, up from $9.1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. The current portion of long-term debt totaled $1.5 billion. Short-term borrowings totaled $4.2 billion at the end of the reported quarter. Total equity of $16 billion increased from $13.9 billion at 2025-end. Fidelity National generated $493 million in net cash from operations, representing a 29.1% year-over-year increase. Adjusted free cash flow totaled $525 million, up 220% year over year. The company returned $270 million to shareholders, including $42 million through share repurchases and $228 million in dividend payments. Management forecasts revenues between $3.415 billion and $3.445 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in the range of $1,460-$1,480 million. Adjusted EPS is estimated to be between $1.58 and $1.62. Revenues are now expected to be $13.63-$13.70 billion, down from the prior guidance of $13.77-$13.85 billion, implying 29-30% adjusted revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be $5.73-$5.79 billion compared to the earlier outlook of $5.80-$5.86 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin is anticipated to be in the range of 41.8-42.4% (previously 42.1-42.3%). Adjusted EPS is forecast in the range of $6.15-$6.24, lowered from the prior guidance of $6.22-$6.32. The midpoint implies about 11.2% year-over-year growth from $5.57 reported in 2025. Free cash flow guidance has been raised to $2.15-$2.25 billion from the previous $2.05-$2.15 billion. The company now expects free cash flow growth of 33-39% year over year. Fidelity National currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Several companies in the business services space, including Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MRSH, Visa Inc. V and Mastercard Incorporated MA, have reported their financial results for the June quarter of 2026. Here’s how they have performed: MRSH reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $2.96, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. The bottom line advanced 8.8% year over year. Consolidated revenues of $7.4 billion improved 6.2% year over year. The figure rose 5% on an underlying basis. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2%. Marsh’s quarterly results benefited from solid growth in the Risk and Insurance Services and Consulting units. However, the upside was partially offset by elevated operating expenses, primarily due to increased compensation and benefits. Visa delivered third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share, which rose 11% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. Net revenues were $11.63 billion, rising 14% year over year. Visa’s quarterly results reflected resilient spending trends, higher cross-border volumes and solid network activity, including a 10% year-over-year increase in payments volume on a constant-dollar basis. However, the upside was partly offset by increased operating expenses. Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $5.04 per share, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.7%. The bottom line improved 21.4% year over year. Net revenues advanced 14.1% year over year to $9.3 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.4%. Mastercard’s quarterly results benefited from strong cross-border volume growth, increased switched transactions and robust demand for value-added services. However, the upside was partly offset by higher payment network rebates from renewed deals and an escalating operating expense level. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marsh (MRSH) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

The Western Union Company WU reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 31 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 27.9%. The bottom line declined 26.2% year over year. Total revenues were $1.01 billion, which declined 1.3% from the prior-year period's level. However, the top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.6%. Lower revenues and higher expenses in the Consumer Money Transfer (“CMT”) retail business, lower margins in the Consumer Services business, and increased operating expenses weighed on second-quarter earnings. These headwinds were partly offset by growth in the Consumer Services and Branded Digital businesses, driven by higher bill payment revenues and growth in the Travel Money business. The Western Union Company price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | The Western Union Company Quote Adjusted operating margin fell 400 bps to 15%, caused by lower revenues and higher expenses in the CMT retail business, lower margins in the Consumer Services business, and higher operating expenses. Total expenses rose 5.7% year over year to $881.1 million. The year-over-year increase resulted from higher cost of services and SG&A expenses. Operating income of $132.1 million declined 31% year over year and lagged our estimate of $175.3 million. The Consumer Money Transfer segment recorded revenues of $866.1 million, which slipped 2% year over year. The figure exceeded both the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $852.2 million and our model estimates of $844.1 million. Operating income declined 25% year over year to $125.7 million. The metric missed the consensus mark of $145.5 million and our estimate of $146.8 million. The operating income margin declined 400 bps year over year to 15%. Transactions in the CMT segment grew 3% year over year. Excluding Iraq, adjusted revenues declined 4% year over year. Branded Digital transactions increased 25% year over year. Branded Digital revenues, which accounted for 32% of CMT's second-quarter revenues, rose 7% on a reported basis and 6% on an adjusted basis. The Consumer Services segment’s revenues rose 4% year over year on a reported basis and 12% on an adjusted basis, reaching $147.1 million in the quarter. This growth was driven by the expansion of the Travel Money business and increased revenues from the bill payment segment. The metric missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $154.7 million. Operating income totaled $23.3 million, which decreased 26% year over year. The metric missed the consensus mark as well as our estimate. The operating income margin declined 600 bps year over year to 16%. Western Union exited the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $919.8 million, which decreased from the 2025-end level of $1.2 billion. Total assets of $8 billion declined from $8.3 billion as of 2025-end. Borrowings totaled $2.7 billion, down from $2.9 billion as of 2025-end. Total stockholders’ equity declined to $914.7 million from $957.8 million at the end of 2025. WU generated net cash from operations of $213.9 million in the first six months of 2026, up from $147.9 million in the year-ago period. Western Union returned $73.3 million to shareholders through dividends in the second quarter of 2026. During the first six months of 2026, the company repurchased $53.7 million of its common stock. As of June 30, 2026, $721.6 million remained available under its share repurchase authorization. The company now expects adjusted revenue growth of 4-6%, down from the previous guidance of 6-9%. Adjusted EPS guidance was lowered to $1.25-$1.35 from the earlier projection of $1.75-$1.85. The midpoint of the revised guidance implies a 25.7% decline from the 2025 adjusted EPS of $1.75. The company also expects an adjusted effective tax rate of 13-15% and a GAAP effective tax rate of 20-22%. In the second quarter, Western Union did not provide GAAP EPS guidance, citing the inability to reliably estimate certain reconciling items. Previously, the company had projected GAAP EPS in the range of $1.50-$1.60, the midpoint of which implied approximately 2% growth from the 2025 GAAP EPS of $1.52. WU currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Several companies in the business services space, including Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MRSH, Visa Inc.V and Mastercard Incorporated MA, have reported their financial results for the June quarter of 2026. Here’s how they have performed: MRSH reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $2.96, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. The bottom line advanced 8.8% year over year. Consolidated revenues of $7.4 billion improved 6.2% year over year. The figure rose 5% on an underlying basis. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2%. Marsh’s quarterly results benefited from solid growth in the Risk and Insurance Services and Consulting units. However, the upside was partially offset by elevated operating expenses, primarily due to increased compensation and benefits. Visa delivered third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share, which rose 11% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. Net revenues were $11.63 billion, rising 14% year over year. Visa’s quarterly results reflected resilient spending trends, higher cross-border volumes and solid network activity, including a 10% year-over-year increase in payments volume on a constant-dollar basis. However, the upside was partly offset by increased operating expenses. Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $5.04 per share, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.7%. The bottom line improved 21.4% year over year. Net revenues advanced 14.1% year over year to $9.3 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.4%. Mastercard’s quarterly results benefited from strong cross-border volume growth, increased switched transactions and robust demand for value-added services. However, the upside was partly offset by higher payment network rebates from renewed deals and an escalating operating expense level. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Western Union Company (WU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marsh (MRSH) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research