<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - MasterCard Inc <MA.N> posted quarterly earnings that fell short of Wall Street forecasts due to higher-than-expected costs, sending its shares down nearly 7 percent in premarket trade.</p><p>The world's No. 2 credit card network also logged an after-tax severance charge that shaved earnings by 19 cents per share.</p><p>MasterCard earned $294.4 million, or $2.24 per share, in the fourth quarter, up from $239.4 million, or $1.83 per share, a year earlier.</p><p>Analysts on average expected $2.46 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p><p>Revenue was up 6 percent at $1.30 billion, meeting expectations, as a rebound in credit card and debit card spending yielded a 6.7 percent jump in transactions processed.</p><p>Operating expenses grew 9.8 percent in the holiday-season quarter, on the back of a 25 percent spike in advertising and marketing expenses. Expenses were higher than most analysts expected.</p><p>MasterCard shares were down $17.08 at $230.50 in premarket trade. Prior to Thursday, they had risen more than 50 percent in the last 12 months, approaching their all-time high of $320.30, reached in 2008.</p><p>Rather than issuing credit cards or processing transactions, MasterCard and its peers operate the networks of payment and have grown as shoppers globally increasingly replace cash and checks with plastic.</p><p>MasterCard's closely-watched gross dollar volume figure was up 5.3 percent in the quarter, boosted by higher U.S. gasoline prices and a weaker U.S. dollar compared with a year earlier. MasterCard results benefit from the weaker dollar when the company converts non-U.S. revenue into dollars.</p><p>Larger rival Visa Inc <V.N> reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, boosted by debit card volumes.</p><p>(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68439407&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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