MasterCard hits all-time high on strong growth

(Reuters) - MasterCard Inc reported sharply higher third-quarter profit on Wednesday, easily beating Wall Street estimates on double-digit increases in volumes.

The company's chief executive also said on a conference call with analysts that consumers were still spending despite economic uncertainty, though growth comparisons will start to get harder from this month.

MasterCard shares hit an all-time high in morning trading before giving up some gains, though they were still up 7.8 percent at $360.41 as of late morning.

With those gains, the stock is up 61 percent for the year, against a 32 percent gain for competitor Visa and a 2 percent decline for the S&P 500 Index.

"We would expect strength in shares and outperformance over the near-term," Barclays Capital analyst Darrin Peller said in a note, adding that MasterCard has actually underperformed the S&P 500 over the last month.

The company has increased efforts to poach U.S. business from Visa, just as Visa is expanding its international business.

Within the last year, MasterCard has signed contracts with banks including SunTrust Banks Inc to process card transactions, gaining clients that once worked with Visa.

MasterCard said on Wednesday it is also having some success internationally, with growth in transaction processing in Brazil and the Netherlands contributing to results and an expansion in Italy on the horizon.

"We have really not seen any significant impact in Europe, given what's going on there, from an economic point of view," Chief Financial Officer Martina Hund-Mejean said on the conference call.