With our information and stock market data, you'll find everything you need to know about the American Express group in order to carry out analyses of this share on the stock market. We'll be discussing various aspects of the company and this value such as the activities and sources of income of American Express as well as its direct competitors in its sector of activity, some examples of recent partnerships and its strengths and main weaknesses. We'll also explain how you can carry out a fundamental analysis of this stock with the elements, publications and events to follow.
First of all, closely follow the investments in innovation and research made by American Express which can help it develop new practical services and continue to position itself among the leaders in its sector.
Additionally, acquisitions and mergers with other companies can allow American Express to accelerate its growth and gain long-term profitability.
Also keep a close eye on the competition from other companies in this sector of activity with the implementation of various payment platforms that can affect its growth. This particularly affects the onset of dematerialized payments which represent a severe threat against this group.
The company's commercial strategy is also interesting to study, particularly regarding establishing partnerships and marketing operations aimed at making the brand more popular with the general public.
Finally, you should also follow the group's annual and quarterly results very closely because of their probable influence on market decision-making, ensuring that they are systematically compared to analysts' expectations and previously set objectives.
Now let's explore American Express, its main activities and sources of income. Sound knowledge of the group is an essential element if you wish to effectively measure the possibilities of growth for the years to come.
The American Express group is an American company specializing in the payment card sector. Put simply, the company specializes in the issuance and marketing of payment cards intended for mainly travel such as the payment of hotels, transport tickets and restaurants.
To better understand the group's activities, they can be divided into several divisions according to the percentage of turnover they generate as so:
Now that you've acquired proper insight of the American Express group, learn a little more about its sector of activity and more precisely its two major competitors in the market:
The MasterCard Incorporated group is of course a direct competitor of American Express. This American company specializing in payment and withdrawal systems is based in New York and, before 2006, was a cooperative society owned by more than 25,000 financial institutions. It is now a listed company. Therefore, this company offers credit and debit cards of the MasterCard, Maestro or Cirrus brands and over 33 million businesses around the world display the acceptance mark of these cards. It's obviously one of the main players worldwide in the payment sector with American Express and Visa.
Finally, the second major competitor of American Express is the Visa group which is actually a joint venture made up of 15,000 financial companies including banks and credit companies. Several hundred million bank cards from the Visa range circulate in Europe alone and over 3 billion cards circulate throughout the world. These Visa cards are available in over 175 different currencies and are accepted by nearly 55 million merchants.
Of course, the American Express group also have a few allies in its ranks. To make itself known and gain profitability and customers, the American group regularly sets up strategic partnerships that allow it to conquer new markets and increase its growth. Here are two specific examples that will help you understand their interest.
In 2013, the American Express group strengthened an already existing partnership with the Air France KLM group. The aim of this reinforcement was first of all to continue their strategic collaboration until 2019, but also to give French SMEs access to Pro Air France KLM American Express cards. Bear in mind that since 1998, cards mentioning the two brands have allowed large companies and SMEs with more than one million euros in turnover, to optimize the management of their professional expenses by accumulating a Blue Credit bonus under the Bluebiz program. Since this reinforcement, the two companies have extended their professional offer to the leaders of French SMEs with a turnover of less than 1 million euros. This collaboration enabled the creation of new Pro Air France KLM American Express cards with Silver, Gold and Platinum cards. The holders of these cards can accumulate Miles in the same way as with a personal card when they incur business expenses.
In 2012, it was with the then booming social network Twitter that American Express announced a strategic and innovative partnership to allow its customers to benefit from discount coupons through a simple tweet. As a result, cardholders can obtain discounts through a tweet by synchronizing their American Express card with their Twitter account and without the need for proper papers or printing.
Remaining on the topic of predicting the future variations of the American Express share price as well as possible, check out the main strengths and weaknesses of this stock through the benefits and drawbacks of the company.
First of all the strengths of the American Express group:
Alongside these great strengths, the American Express group also has weak points that you should also be aware of before embarking on the analysis of its price, here are the main ones:
The latest financial results that have been published by the American Express group are two for the fiscal year 2019. As such, the official publications have mentioned a turnover of around 43,600 million euros with a net profit of 6,787 million euros. The group's market capitalization then amounted to 93,637 million euros.
The main shareholders of the American Express group are currently Berkshire Hathaway with 18.3% of the shares, The Vanguard Group with 5.92%, SSgA Funds Management with 4.36%, Fidelity Management & Research with 3.48%, Wellington Management with 2.47%, Capital Research & Management with 2.47%, Putnam with 1.45% and Fisher Asset management with 1.37% of shares.
Although the American Express share price is listed on the American NYSE market in the United States, it is possible to trade it from Europe. As one of the largest stock markets in the world, this share is provided by many online stock brokers.
