Will American Express Earnings Depress Or Show Excess? (AXP)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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We’va already been warned that this quarter was going to be a miserable one, but today is the awaited earnings from American Express (NYSE: AXP). As this is a DJIA component and as this one has what is thought of as the highest credit scoring for consumers, this news can still run-off into many other financial companies large and small.

First Call has estimates pegged at $0.71 EPS and $7.85 billion in revenues.  Next quarter’s estimates are $0.85 EPS and $7.28 billion in revenues; if the company offers 2008 targets, those estimates are $3.49 EPS and $30.72 billion in revenues.

Analysts still have a price target on American Express Company with an average of $56.15.  Even after the company already signaled much of the quarter, options traders appear to be braced for a move of $2.50 in either direction.  This chart has been an ugly one but at least has bounced since the FOMC made its emergency intervention last week.  The 52-week trading range is $41.15 to $65.89, and the pattern over the last 5-days has been in a $44 to $48 trading range.

With about 90 minutes to the close, American Express shares are up 2.8% to $46.73.

Jon C. Ogg
January 28, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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