Shrugging off concerns about consumer spending habits in shaky economic times, American Express Co. posted a massive revenue beat Friday and boosted its outlook for the full year. The company logged second-quarter net income of $1.96 billion, or $2.57 a share, down from $2.28 billion, or $2.80 a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling $2.42 in earnings per share.
American Express
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+2.32%
recorded $13.4 billion in total revenues net of interest expense in the quarter, whereas analysts had been looking for $12.51 billion. The company had posted $10.24 billion in revenue during its year-earlier quarter. Amex attributed the boost largely to higher card spending. The stock was up more than 5% in Friday morning trading and was the best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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“I would really point you to our premium customer base,” Chief Financial Officer Jeff Campbell told MarketWatch. He said that the company’s consumer, small-business, and corporate customers are “all premium,” and those customers are showing “no signs of any stress from a credit perspective.” Chief Executive Stephen Squeri shared in a release that Amex’s results also reflected “the scale and strength of our global customer base, the decisions we made through the pandemic and recovery to support our customers and seize on growth opportunities, and our continued focus on enhancing our value propositions and bringing new customers into the franchise.” The company recognized a 30% boost in card-member spending on a currency-neutral basis during the latest quarter. Amex als …