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American Express (AXP) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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American Express (AXP - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $116.40, moving +1.2% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.09% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.21%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.34%.

Heading into today, shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company had lost 3.36% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 1.13% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.17% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AXP as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 18, 2019. On that day, AXP is projected to report earnings of $2.07 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.11%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.97 billion, up 8.17% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.12 per share and revenue of $43.62 billion. These totals would mark changes of +10.78% and +8.13%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for AXP. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% lower within the past month. AXP is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note AXP's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.16. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.62.

We can also see that AXP currently has a PEG ratio of 1.39. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Financial - Miscellaneous Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.54 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 77, which puts it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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