Is American Express Back in Favor After Earnings?

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: April 21, 2016 12:05 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:28 am

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) reported its first-quarter earnings report after the markets closed on Wednesday. The credit card giant said it had $1.45 in earnings per share (EPS) on $8.09 billion in revenue. The Thomson Reuters consensus estimates had called for $1.35 in EPS on revenue of $7.99 billion. In the same period of last year, Amex posted EPS of $1.48 and $7.95 billion in revenue.

A fair number of analysts were impressed by these results and decided to pour into the stock. We have included an analyst montage detailing how they view this stock after earnings.

During the most recent quarter, investment spending was up significantly, reflecting what management believes to be initiatives to grow the business by expanding its membership base and gaining a greater share of their overall spending and borrowing.

Amex reported the following segment results for the first quarter:

U.S. Card Services reported net income of $694 million, up 5% from $659 million a year ago.
International Card Services reported net income of $188 million, down 5% from $197 million a year ago.
Global Commercial Services reported net income of $485 million, down 6% from $517 million a year ago.
Global Network & Merchant Services reported net income of $357 million, down from $369 million a year ago.
Corporate and Other reported a net loss of $298 million. This compared to a net loss of $217 million a year ago.