AMEX’s clients pay their bills

Article Excerpt

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $159 is a buy. The company (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 749.8 million; Market cap: $119.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) is one of the world’s largest issuers of payment cards. Despite rising interest rates, Amex’s affluent customers continue to pay their loans on time. The delinquency rate for its U.S. consumer clients was 0.7% in July 2022, unchanged from June and up slightly from 0.6% in July 2021. As well, the U.S. small business card delinquency rate was 0.6% in July, the same level as the previous two months, but up slightly from 0.4% in July 2021. American Express is a buy. buy…