New York - American Express Company, this year’s worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as the dollar strengthened and the lender ended its relationship with Costco Wholesale.
Net income climbed 6.5 percent to $1.53 billion, or $1.48 a share, from $1.43 billion, or $1.33, a year earlier, the New York-based company said on Thursday in a statement. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of $1.37 a share.
Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault is under pressure to recover from setbacks, including the end of a partnership with Costco in the US and Canada. In recent months, he has announced new co-brand card deals, rewards programmes and technology investments.
“These results came against the negative impact of a sharply stronger US dollar, an uneven global economy, and the long-term renewal of several co-brand relationships,” Chenault, 63, said in the statement. “We also felt the impact from ending our relationship with Costco Canada, which expired at year-end.”
Net revenue declined 2.7 percent to $7.95 billion from a year earlier, missing the $8.18 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Card spending
Consolidated expenses fell 1 percent to $5.2 billion, adjusted for currency fluctuations. Excluding some one-time items, expenses rose 5 percent as the company spent more on rewards programmes, according to the statement. Customer card spending increased 7 percent to $245.6 billion, adjusted for currency swings.
“If this is supposed to be the best quarter of the year, which is what they’ve hinted at, then we don’t have a lot to look forward to on an earnings perspective,” said Jason Arnold, an RBC Capital Markets analyst. “The headline number looks good but when you dig into the guts, not so much.”
AmEx fell 1.3 percent to $79.89 at 5.15pm in New York. The shares declined 13 percent through the end of regular trading, compared with the 1.6 percent advance of the 30-company Dow.
The lender, which announced in February that it will terminate its agreement with Costco in the US in 2016, expects earnings this year to “be flat to modestly down,” Chenault said in the statement. The partnership with the Issaquah, Washington-based retailer accounted for 20 percent of AmEx’s worldwide loans and 8 percent of customer spending.
AmEx also is ending its relationship with JetBlue Airways, and lost an antitrust ruling that would let merchants steer customers to cheaper cards, which could threaten the firm’s ability to charge higher merchant fees.
The lawsuit, which AmEx is appealing, is “potentially transformative to the company”, according to William Ryan, a Portales Partners LLC analyst. “Should the company’s premium pricing be eroded, the company will basically begin to look more like its peers.”
Bloomberg