axp posts
FeedPosted Mar 29th 2011 3:20PM by Jason Raznick (RSS feed)
Filed under: American Express (AXP)

American Express (
AXP) announced "Serve" yesterday, an all-new digital payment platform set to rival eBay's (
EBAY) PayPal system. Consumers can use Serve to make digital purchases, pay off bills, transfer funds and send money via Apple's (
AAPL) iPhone and Google's (
GOOG) Android phones.
Serve is also available via the web and Facebook, and users are provided a debit card as a traditional way for a consumer to access their accounts. The card can be used at any ATM machine or vendor that accepts American Express.
Continue reading American Express: Don't Leave Your Phone Without It
Posted Mar 4th 2011 3:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Citigroup Inc. (C), American Express (AXP), Chubb Corp (CB), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Entrepreneurs, Serious Money, Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG), MetLife Inc. (MET), Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV), Republic Services Inc. (RSG), Stock Picks, National Grid (NGG)

Prognosticators the world over are throwing in their 2 cents about "my pal Warren's" next market moves; especially since he announced last week that his trigger finger was itchy. When Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (
BRK.A and
BRK.B) speaks, investors listen.
On Wednesday March 2, this investor threw in his two cents worth (see:
Serious Money: What Should Warren Buffett Do Next?) discussing possible acquisitions. Since all the "pro's", I use the term loosely, have had a say I thought I would give readers a chance to express some of their ideas too.
Continue reading Serious Money: Buffett's Next Buys -- You Pick'em
Posted Feb 17th 2011 1:20PM by Trefis (RSS feed)
Filed under: American Express (AXP)
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.
Like our charts? Embed them in your own posts using the Trefis Wordpress Plugin.
Posted Feb 2nd 2011 11:00AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer Experience, Personal Finance
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?
Posted Jan 25th 2011 8:15AM by Jason Raznick (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the Bell, International Markets, Earnings Reports, Market Matters, American Express (AXP), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Economic Data, Commodities, Oil, Currency

U.S. stock futures are lower Tuesday morning, as investors await
earnings reports from several major companies as well as data on consumer confidence and housing prices. Futures on the
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8 points to 11,922.00; S&P 500 futures dropped 3.70 points to 1,284.80; and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 9 points to 2,289.00.
U.S. stocks closed higher Monday, with the blue-chip Dow index gaining 108.68 points, or 0.92%.
The Case-Shiller home-price index for November is due at 9 a.m. ET and consumer-confidence data for January will be released at 10 am ET.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address this evening.
Continue reading Futures Down As Investors Await Earnings Reports, Economic Data
Posted Jan 23rd 2011 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Microsoft (MSFT), McDonald's (MCD), Caterpillar (CAT), American Express (AXP), Chevron Corp (CVX), Economic Data, United Technologies (UTX), Federal Reserve, General Dynamics Corp (GD)
With earnings season in full swing, the FOMC meeting on interest rates, the GDP estimate, and housing numbers due out, the coming week is shaping up to be a busy one. So here's a peek at what's on the economic calendar.
Monday
Quarterly reports from American Express (AXP) and McDonald's (MCD) will highlight Monday. Amgen (AMGN), CSX (CSX), Halliburton (HAL) and Texas Instruments (TXN) are also expected to report strong earnings results.
Continue reading Week in Preview: GDP, FOMC Meeting, Housing Data and Lots of Earnings
Posted Jan 19th 2011 4:20PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Business Machines (IBM), American Express (AXP), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC)

Today was a strange day marked by selling in technology and an almost gain in the
DJIA. Many key technology stocks sold off as currencies weighed. Much of the media coverage surrounded President Hu's visit from China in
D.C. today. Here were today's closing bell levels:
Dow Jones 11,825.29 -12.64 (-0.11%)
S&P 500 1,281.92 -13.10 (-1.01%)
Nasdaq 2,725.36 -40.49 (-1.46%)
Continue reading Closing Bell: Shaking Off Mixed Earnings (AXP, BA, GS, IBM, MOS, WFC)
Posted Jan 19th 2011 1:30PM by Brent Archer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Bad News, American Express (AXP), Options, Technical Analysis

American Express (
AXP -
option chain) stock is trading lower today after
the company announced it expects to report fiscal-Q4 earnings of 94 cents per share, excluding one-time items.
Analysts have forecast a profit of 95 cents per share. AXP also said it will record one-time charges totaling $113 million, related to restructuring and other changes. AXP will report full quarterly results on Monday, January 24. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on AXP.
This morning, AXP opened at $45.20. So far today the stock has hit a high of $45.70 and a low of $44.80. As of 12:15, AXP is trading at $45.17, down $1.20 (-2.6%). The chart for AXP looks bullish and
S&P gives AXP a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.
Continue reading American Express Drops on Weak Q2 Guidance
Next Page >