American Express (AXP) ended the recent trading session at $295.30, demonstrating a +0.66% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.4%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.28%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.39%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company had gained 10.12% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's gain of 4.15% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.69% in that time.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of American Express in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.84, up 10.03% from the prior-year quarter. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $17.69 billion, indicating an 8.34% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $15.19 per share and a revenue of $71.27 billion, demonstrating changes of +13.78% and +8.06%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for American Express. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. Right now, American Express possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, American Express is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.31. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.68, which means American Express is trading at a premium to the group.
It's also important to note that AXP currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.43. 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. The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.96 as of yesterday's close.
The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 127, putting it in the bottom 49% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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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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