American Express (AXP) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

American Express (AXP) closed at $120.90 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.37% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.11% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.07%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company had lost 0.36% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's gain of 0.56% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.62% in that time.

AXP will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, AXP is projected to report earnings of $2.01 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 15.52%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.38 billion, up 8.7% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.14 per share and revenue of $43.60 billion, which would represent changes of +11.05% and +8.09%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for AXP should also be noted by investors. 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. 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, 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 0.23% lower within the past month. AXP is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AXP has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.79 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.25.

We can also see that AXP currently has a PEG ratio of 1.42. 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 1.86 as of yesterday's close.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 192, putting it in the bottom 25% 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.

To follow AXP in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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