American Express (AXP) followed in Visa's (V) steps and announced a digital payment and commerce platform dubbed Serve, which enables the consumers to make purchases and person-to-person payments online via mobile phones and at merchants that accept American Express cards. MasterCard (MA) is also planning to launch its own offering for personal payments.

We estimate that American Express derives 73% of our $49.61 price estimate from card transaction and execution fees while Visa derives almost 29% of its $85.03 Trefis price estimate from transaction fees.

Continue reading American Express Nips at Paypal with New 'Serve' Platform

American Express Nips at Paypal with New 'Serve' Platform originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading American Express: Don't Leave Your Phone Without It

American Express: Don't Leave Your Phone Without It originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It seems inevitable that our smartphones will become our wallets. After all, they have become a key part of our lives. And smartphones have the power to carry out secure and sophisticated transactions.

As is no surprise, many companies are scrambling to be winners in the e-wallet space. Take American Express (AXP). The company has launched a new e-wallet called Serve.

Continue reading American Express Revs Up Its E-wallet

American Express Revs Up Its E-wallet originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The mobile revolution is spawning a variety of business relationships to attract new customers. The latest is the partnership between credit card holder, American Express (AXP) and the social network Foursquare Labs Inc.

Both companies are capitalizing the growing segment of online purchasing. American Express had roughly $100 billion in online transactions last year. Online spending is growing at a 20% rate, compared to15% for overall spending, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading American Express Partners with Foursquare to Attract Customers

American Express Partners with Foursquare to Attract Customers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Serious Money: Buffett's Next Buys -- You Pick'em

Serious Money: Buffett's Next Buys -- You Pick'em originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last Friday Warren Buffett said he was anxious to pull the trigger on another large deal -- having only recently completed the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B) acquisition of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Since then, prognosticators far and wide have been making suggestions about his next possible moves.

Considering I wrote about the railroads the day before the BNSF announcement, I thought I would share a few ideas, old and new.

Continue reading Serious Money: What Should Warren Buffett Do Next?

Serious Money: What Should Warren Buffett Do Next? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Founded in 1950, New York based American Express (AXP) is a leading global financial services company offering card payment products and travel-related services to consumers and businesses across the globe. It is now the third largest player in the U.S. in terms of card transaction volumes after Visa (V) and MasterCard (MC). It also competes with other financial institutions that have credit card services like Discover Financial (DFS) and Capital One (COH).

Continue reading Two Legs of Growth for American Express: Women and Technology

Two Legs of Growth for American Express: Women and Technology originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Founded in 1950, New York-based American Express (AXP) is a leading global financial services company offering card payment products and travel-related services to consumers and businesses across the globe. It is now the third largest player in the US in terms of card transaction volumes, after Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA). It also competes with other financial institutions that have credit card services like Discover Financial (DFS)and Capital One (COF).

What differentiates American Express from MasterCard and Visa is its relatively more affluent customer base, which it maintains by offering generous benefits and reward programs. Since American Express brings higher spending consumers to merchants, it can charge a higher commission (known as the interchange fee) on sales. Also, unlike Visa and MasterCard, American Express only issues charge and credit card products but not debit cards, which have been gaining widespread acceptance over the past couple of years. With these critical differences in mind, we explore the opportunities that lie ahead for American Express in an evolving macroeconomic environment.

Our price estimate is $47.16, which is just slightly higher than the current market price.

Impact of Regulatory Reforms

The Obama Administration in February 2010 passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, or the CARD Act which enforces more disclosure about interest rates, caps on service fees, grace periods and also makes it difficult for people under the age of 21 to obtain cards. All this is expected to negatively impact the growth in the number of cards in use but lead to lower net write-off rates and defaults by card members.

The Durbin Amendment, enacted in July 2010, granted the Fed the power to control the levels of this fee. In December, the Fed enforced one such limit - 12 cents per debit card transaction. While this adversely affects the two largest card payments-processing networks Visa and MasterCard, which also issue debit cards, we believe it presents upside opportunity for American Express as credit cards would gain prominence over debit cards, at least from the issuers' end.

Improving Economic Conditions

The macroeconomic conditions are improving in the US, albeit at a slow pace. The unemployment levels are still close to historical high levels but on a downward slope, declining from 9.8% in November 2010 to 9.4% in December 2010. Consumer spending has picked up and so have the corresponding card transactions.

Household purchases, which constitute about 70% of the economy, grew at 4.4% in December 2010, the highest since the first quarter of 2006.American Express' card delinquency rates (the proportion of outstanding balances past the due date to total balances) continues to decline month on month to 2.1% from 2.5% in the previous quarter. Charge-offs (the loans deemed uncollectible and hence, written-off) also declined from 5.2% to 4.4% over the same period. Improvements in macroeconomic conditions hint at more relaxed card-issuing criteria and higher credit limits.

If spending increases more than we currently forecast, this could improve our price estimate. Drag the trend line in the modifiable chart above to see the impact. For example, a 5% increase in annual spending in 2012 per customer translates to around a 2% improvement in our price estimate.

See our estimates for American Express.

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American Express Outlook Improves on Recovery in Spending originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I first discussed American Express (AXP) here on May 4, 2009, at a price of $27.28, and the stock has continued to progress since, but in choppy fashion.

Fundamentally, American Express continues to improve, as well. Look for the company to report 2011 revenue growth of 7% to 9%, as the U.S. economic expansion progresses, followed by a 5% to 8% rise in 2012.

Continue reading American Express In a Choppy Uptrend

American Express In a Choppy Uptrend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Are credit card rates too high? The answer is a resounding YES! The Federal Reserve just gave the banks $600 billion in cash in the form of a second round of quantitative easing. What are they doing with it? Raising the rates on credit cards, of course, so they can turn that $600 billion into $1.2 trillion in four years.

You are probably wondering how they are doing this. It's very simple. If you use the rule of 72s, at 18%, money doubles itself every four years (you divide 72 by the rate of interest).

Continue reading Are Credit Card Interest Rates Too High?

Are Credit Card Interest Rates Too High? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading American Express: Buy or Sell After Q4 Release?

American Express: Buy or Sell After Q4 Release? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It was a tough day for bank stocks today, and tomorrow Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) will get its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter results.

The market was disappointed today by weak earnings report from Goldman Sachs and by news of job cuts coming from American Express.

Continue reading Capital One to Report Its Q4 Results

Capital One to Report Its Q4 Results originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading American Express Drops on Weak Q2 Guidance

American Express Drops on Weak Q2 Guidance originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• InterMune (ITMN) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merill.
• Halliburton (HAL), Cloud Peak Energy (CLD), Patriot Coal (PCX) and Consol Energy (CNX) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Post Properties (PPS) to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.
• Airgas (ARG) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Hologic (HOLX) to top pick from sector perform and Sunesis Pharma (SNSS) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AEO, ARG, AXP, FISV, HAL, HBAN, HOLX, ITMN, MFE, PXC ...

Analyst Calls: AEO, ARG, AXP, FISV, HAL, HBAN, HOLX, ITMN, MFE, PXC ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Sapient (SAPE) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Kroger (KR) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Harman (HAR) to overweight from neutral and Deutsche Bank (DB) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• Savient (SVNT) to outperform from market perform at JMP Securities.
• LabCorp (LH) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Optimer Pharm (OPTR) and Landstar System (LSTR) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Essex Property Trust (ESS) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Tyson Foods (TSN) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Host Hotels (HST) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• SPX Corp. (SPW) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AXP, COF, DB, DFS, DNDN, HST, KR, ROC, SAFM, STJ, TSN ...

Analyst Calls: AXP, COF, DB, DFS, DNDN, HST, KR, ROC, SAFM, STJ, TSN ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading American Express: Is a Bottom in Place at $36?

American Express: Is a Bottom in Place at $36? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Insiders Snapping Up World Heart Corp, American Express and More

Insiders Snapping Up World Heart Corp, American Express and More originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The earnings crunch continues this week, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating lots of strong quarterly reports.

For example, year-over-year earnings growth from big oil Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) are expected to be in double digits. The same is true of many other energy and mining concerns reporting this week: Allegheny Technologies (ATI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Arch Coal (ACI), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), CMS Energy (CMS), CONSOL Energy (CNX), DPL (DPL), Hess Corp. (HES), Minerals Technologies (MTX), Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), PPL Corp. (PPL), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Total (TOT), Whiting Petroleum (WLL), Williams Companies (WMB) and Wisconsin Energy (WEC).

Continue reading Week in Preview: The Earnings Crunch Rolls On (MSFT, COP, V)

Week in Preview: The Earnings Crunch Rolls On (MSFT, COP, V) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of financial giant American Express (AXP) are trading lower in after hours trading despite a stronger than expected earnings report for its third quarter.

Going into this afternoon's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see American Express announce earnings of $0.86 per share, while actual earnings came in above estimates at $0.90 per share.

Continue reading American Express Trades Lower Following Earnings Report

American Express Trades Lower Following Earnings Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Soleil upgraded Baxter (BAX) to buy from hold on expectations the company will benefit from supply disruptions at privately-held plasma manufacturer Octapharma. The firm raised its price target for shares to $56 from $45.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Dolby (DLB) to buy from hold, citing valuation following the recent underperformance of shares. The firm upped its price target to $75 from $70.
• Bernstein upgraded Alexion (ALXN) to outperform from market perform based on increased Soliris forecasts for PNH and potential in aHUS. The firm also raised its price target to $75 from $60.
• Agrium (AGU) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Roche (RHHBY) was upgraded to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• BMO Capital upgraded Energizer (ENR) to outperform from market perform.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: ADBE, AXP, BAX, COST, DLB, FDX, HOT, NOK, NVS, TWX ...

Analyst Calls: ADBE, AXP, BAX, COST, DLB, FDX, HOT, NOK, NVS, TWX ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.