- American Express (AXP +0.8%) was upgraded by Bank of America to Neutral from Underperform with a $169 price target.
- Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley lowered the company's price target to $195 from $200.
- BofA analyst Mihir Bhatia noted that the risk-reward on the stock has turned more "balanced" after its recent underperformance that was driven by fear that COVID-19 Delta-wave would slow the economic recovery and given few negative catalysts on the horizon.
- American Express Vice Chairman and CFO Jeff Campbell had said at a recent Barclays' conference that the majority of the company's spend volumes now, about 85% depending on exactly what time period is looked at are goods and services, whose spend does not seem to be impacted in any way by the Delta variant.
- Campbell commented: "There clearly is some impact, I think, in the US on T&E spend. But on the other hand, as the US weakened a little bit in August, as I pointed out, across the globe, we saw spend strengthen. Little hard to know what to make of the early days of September's since it shows a strengthening."
American Express 3-month stock performance - The analyst added that the company had noted that quarter-to-date total billings are up 3% relative to 2019 levels and accelerating from down 2% in Q2, which is "better than feared".
- The analyst echoed what Campbell had said "So if you look at our quarter-to-date numbers, our overall spending volumes versus 2019 are now up about 3%. And so, I'd remind you that's better than what we reported in the second quarter. Second quarter overall was down about 2%. And it's fairly consistent with the way we exited June, if you go back to the second quarter."
