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AmEx (AXP) to Acquire Nipendo With an Eye on Fast B2B Payments

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American Express Company (AXP - Free Report) recently inked a deal to purchase Israel-based Nipendo, which extends a cloud-based platform meant to automate and simplify business-to-business (B2B) payments processes. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is likely to get completed by the first quarter of 2023.

Following the buyout, American Express intends to leverage the power of Nipendo’s workforce, technology and capabilities to construct an innovative business payments network.

AXP seems to be prudent in its decision of acquiring Nipendo, owing to the lucrative benefits fetched by the platform of the latter. Without requiring a company’s payment infrastructure to undergo any change, Nipendo’s platform boasts the capability to inject additional automation within a company’s current systems.

The buyout announcement is indicative of American Express’ continuous efforts to bring about simpler, speedier and transparent B2B payments. Simultaneously, AXP keeps an eye to bolster its suite of B2B offerings through the latest acquisition.

The strength of Nipendo’s platform will also offer an opportunity for more business clients to interact and increasingly engage in transactions across the Amex network. Consequently, more business customers will turn to leverage the B2B offering portfolio of AXP, which in turn, is expected to boost its customer base.  

Time and again, American Express has resorted to moves in the form of new product launches, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well as collaborations to build a powerful end-to-end B2B platform. Its acquisitions of acompay back in 2019 and partnerships with BillTrust and Versapay (both of which are Average Receivable companies) last year bears testament to the same.

In December 2022, American Express launched a B2B payments solution Amex Business Link to enable its network participants to conduct seamless B2B payments, thus saving time and costs.

In an evolving digital era wherein businesses are compelled to infuse digitization into their operations, the decision to take the help of the cloud-based platform of Nipendo to integrate automation within the systems of business clients seems to be time opportune. Apart from bringing about accelerated B2B payments, the latest buyout can also help American Express to save time and costs stemming from age-old paper-based processes related to management of order processes and supply chain as well as addressing disparities and invoice reconciliation.

Shares of American Express have gained 13.5% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 2.4% growth.

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AXP currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

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Some top-ranked stocks in the Finance space are Civista Bancshares, Inc. (CIVB - Free Report) , Armada Hoffler Properties, Inc. (AHH - Free Report) and Five Star Bancorp (FSBC - Free Report) . While Civista Bancshares sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Armada Hoffler Properties and Five Star Bancorp carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Civista Bancshares’ earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed the mark onc, the average being 9.65%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CIVB’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 19.4%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 19.1% from the corresponding 2022 estimates. The consensus mark for CIVB’s 2023 earnings has moved 0.6% north in the past 60 days.

The bottom line of Armada Hoffler Properties beat estimates in two of the trailing four quarters and met the mark twice, the average surprise being 1.83%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AHH’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 0.7%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 3.1% from the corresponding 2022 estimates. The consensus mark for AHH’s 2023 earnings has moved 2.6% north in the past 30 days.

Five Star Bancorp’s earnings outpaced estimates in three of the last four quarters and met the mark once, the average surprise being 10.29%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FSBC’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 12.9% from the 2022 estimate. The consensus mark for FSBC’s 2023 earnings has moved 1.8% north in the past 60 days.

Shares of Civista Bancshares and Five Star Bancorp have gained 7.3% and 9.2%, respectively, in the past six months. However, the Armada Hoffler Properties stock has lost 2.2% in the same time frame.

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