AXP - American Express' 2024 Guidance Spurs Diverse Analyst Opinions - A Closer Look | Benzinga
UBS analyst Eric Wasserstrom maintained American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) with a Neutral and raised the price target from $188 to $206.
BMO Capital analyst James Fotheringham maintained American Express with an Underperform and raised the price target from $157 to $159.
Following American Express’ fourth quarter 2023 in-line result and better-than-feared full-year guidance, the analyst boosted his estimates by up to +5%; higher-than-previously-modeled card fees and higher NII are
only partially offset by higher expected operating and credit costs.
Net Interest Income (NII) is the difference between the revenue generated from a bank’s interest-bearing assets and expenses incurred while paying its interest-bearing liabilities.
However, the analyst remains worried about deteriorating credit
quality, relatively low reserves, decelerating spending growth, VCE cost inflation, and wider-than-normal valuation gap to lending peers.
Oppenheimer analyst Dominick Gabriele had an Outperform rating on American Express with a price target of $219, up from $208.
The fiscal 2024 guidance of 9-11% revenue growth is driven in particular by loans and net card fees, the analyst noted, while he expects continued moderation overall in billings.
The analyst added that Amex also expects EPS growth year-on-year of 13%-17% or $12.65-$13.15.
The analyst sticks to ~9% revenue growth in 2024 and 2025 but noted massive leverage in lower expense growth and significant capital return that’s not currently modeled should Amex maintain a CET1 of ~10.5%-11% through 2025.
The analyst also ...