American Express Is Worst-Performing Dow Stock, Down 22%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has dropped 7% this year to 16,204.97. One of its 30 components has done very substantially worse. The share price of American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is off 22.39% to $53.95, the worst among companies in the index.

To put the sell-off in perspective, American Express shares are down 36% over the past year. CEO Kenneth Chenault has presided over the collapse. He has been chief executive since 2001.

The first problem Amex faces is its eroding financials. Last year, revenue fell 4% to $32.8 billion. EPS fell to $5.05 from $5.56 for the full year 2014. Chenault’s comments about 2016 disappointed Wall Street:

Our 2015 results and outlook reflect the reset in co-brand economics, pressures on merchant fees, the evolving regulatory environment and intense competition that have been re-shaping the payments industry. A number of cyclical factors in the broader economy have also weighed on our performance and influenced our outlook. Against that backdrop, and the fact that revenue growth has not accelerated as we anticipated, we are moving aggressively to streamline the company and drive efficiencies in order to take out $1 billion from our overall cost base by the end of 2017.

The comments immediately dragged the stock down. Bottom line improvement will depend largely on cost cuts. American Express’s core business is eroding.
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Amex is up against several hurdles, the first of which is that merchants no longer favor its card over Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) and MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA). Some customers also think Amex benefits compare poorly to those of the other two credit card companies. And independent online pay systems likely will erode the Amex customer base too.

American Express is not only performing poorly. There is not much chance the performance will get much better.