American Express profit jumps as customers stick with the $895 Platinum Card
NEW YORK (AP) — American Express saw its profits rise sharply in the third quarter as the credit card giant was able to transition the vast majority of its cardmembers over to the new higher-fee Platinum Card while its well-to-do customers continued to spend aggressively on their cards.
The New York-based company reported Friday a profit of $3.71 billion, up 28% from a year ago, or $5.42 a share. Excluding a one-time gain from AmEx's sale of its stake in Global Business Travel Group, the company earned a quarterly profit of $4.68 per share. That figure beat Wall Street estimates.
AmEx's revenue and profits rose from a combination of customers both charging more on their cards and spending more to have an AmEx card. Last year AmEx updated its Platinum Card, adding several new perks for cardmembers while raising the annual fee from $695 to $895. The reviews on the update were generally positive at the time. However, the biggest question for Wall Street was whether AmEx cardmembers, even with its wealthier customer base, would want to stomach a $200 price jump in the card.
So far, AmEx says that nearly all of the customers who have been moved onto the higher fee Platinum Card have decided to keep the card. Net card fees, which include the annual fees on cards like Platinum, rose by more than $400 million compared to a year earlier.
The company also continues to see upticks in the amount of money spent on the cards. The average AmEx customer spent $6,735 on their cards last quarter, or $2,245 a month. That's up 5% from last year.
Some of that higher spend is likely tied to inflation, said AmEx Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec in an interview. AmEx customers lean heavily into travel and entertainment spending, and for example, airline fares have risen sharply from a year ago due to higher fuel prices and other inflationary pressures. However, the company is also seeing the number of transactions per cardmember increasing as well.
The company now forecasts it will earn an adjusted profit of between $17.60 and $17.90 per share for the full year, raising the lower end of its forecast which previously was $17.30 to $17.90 per share.
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