American Express is the top stock in the Dow so far this year, and AmEx’s earnings on Friday morning show why investors are never leaving home without it.
The credit card giant reported a quarterly profit of $2.3 billion, easily topping Wall Street’s forecasts. Revenue for American Express ( AXP) came in at $10.2 billion, a 33% jump from the second quarter of 2020 and also ahead of consensus estimates. The stock rose nearly 4% Friday on the news. The stock is up more-than 45% this year, putting AmEx slightly ahead of Goldman Sachs. Like Goldman ( GS) and other top financial stocks, Amex has thrived during the past few months as the economy has roared back to life following the brief Covid recession last year and consumers started spending again. AmEx also has outperformed credit card rivals Mastercard ( MA) and fellow Dow component Visa ( V), which are up 7% and 12% respectively in 2021. The company has enjoyed an impressive run since CEO Stephen Squeri took over in 2018 from longtime AmEx chief Ken Chenault. Squeri has boosted AmEx’s investments in tech and diversified into other areas like small biz lending with last year’s acquisition of fintech startup Kabbage, a tech company aimed at small businesses.
