American Express (AXP) ended the recent trading session at $329.44, demonstrating a +1.88% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.85%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 1.36%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.72%.
Coming into today, shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company had gained 5.37% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector gained 2.7%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.38%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of American Express in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $3.95, reflecting a 13.18% increase from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $17.99 billion, up 8.14% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $15.26 per share and revenue of $71.41 billion. These totals would mark changes of +14.31% and +8.28%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for American Express. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.03% higher. Right now, American Express possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, American Express is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 21.19. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 12.4 of its industry.
It's also important to note that AXP currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.71. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry held an average PEG ratio of 0.97.
The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 49, which puts it in the top 20% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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American Express Company (AXP): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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