AmEx raises revenue forecast on resilient card spending
American Express Co (AXP.N) raised its annual revenue forecast on Friday as consumers, undeterred by decades-high inflation and the threat of a recession, spend heavily on its cards for travel and entertainment.
Spending on AmEx cards rose to record levels in the second quarter, echoing the resilience pointed by big U.S. banks in their earnings reports earlier this month.
That encouraged the credit card giant to raise its full-year revenue growth view to a range of 23% to 25% from 18% to 20% previously, sending its shares 5% higher in premarket trading.
“Even though the U.S. social-economic environment seems to be filled with recession fears, we’ve seen consumer spending continue to trend up over the last 18 months,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at multi-family office Running Point Capital Advisors.
“For multiple reasons, some of this spending increase can probably be blamed on inflation. Since price inflation is faster than salary inflation, it might make sense for a family to purchase some big ticket durables now rather than wait till the items increase more relative to wages.”
AmEx said goods and services spending – the largest category on its network, remained strong in the quarter ended June 30, while spending by Millenial and Gen Z card members increased 48% on an adjusted basis.
The New York-based company, however, added $410 million in provisions for credit losses, in a sharp contrast to a benefit of $606 million a year ago.
Expenses also surged by nearly a third to $10.4 billion as AmEx spent heavily on rewards and perks to attract customers.
