Karen Firestone, CEO, Aureus Asset Management American Express AXP-N BUY Sep 11, 2024

She just trimmed AmEx as part of typical prudent portfolio management. She bought this in 2019 at 14x PE and is now at 19x PE with 13% earnings growth for the next two years. If the market hits volatility, she's perfectly fine taking a little money off the table.

A bit more credit risk than other names. All the credit card companies are good, but he prefers and owns Visa.

It reports Friday. Every time it reports, the stock takes a hit that day, but AXP has had a juggernaut run in recent years.

Positioned higher on the socio-economic side than Visa or MA, so it doesn't have a lot of credit problems. Absolutely spectacular track record. Extremely profitable right through the entire financial crisis. Earnings growth at the 15% annualized level, trades at only 18x. Excess cash generation. Repurchased ~40% of stock in last 20 years. Yield is 1.17%, keeps jacking it up.

Also a core holding of his good friend Warren Buffett ;)

It reports Thursday. It trades on new card sign-ups, especially from young people and he expects that in the report. But careful: they usually trades badly in the morning of a report, then reverses. Listen to the call before deciding.

He bought more $282. They target a young, aspirational person trying to get a gold card. Likes it.

Is a long term hold for her. Is slightly down for the year, but the earnings growth is remarkable, consistently 15-19%.

Seeing profit-taking now. Is up 30% for the year. They're firing on all cylinders.

Will lead in the coming year over Visa and Mastercard, because AXP has a younger demographic and not built into the PE. That said, they're all great companies and can't lose.