American Express Announces Q1 Earnings

American Express

announced its first quarter earnings results this afternoon, April 16, 2014. Shares of the company are down 0.74 percent or $0.65 per share to 86.75. The credit card company had its net income leap 12 percent in the first quarter of 2014, which was helped by higher spending by its cardholders even as cold. American Express stated that its net income rose to $1.43 billion or $1.33 per share in the three months ended March 31. The company had its diluted earnings per share leap 16 percent to 1.33, up from $1.15 a year ago. The company also had its revenue increase four percent to $8.2 billion compared to $7.88 billion the year before. The company's effective tax rate for the quarter stood at 35 percent, up from 33 percent a year ago. The company's return on average equity (ROE) skyrocketed 23.2 percent and stands at 28.3 percent. Kenneth I. Chenault, chief executive officer and chairman, commented: • “We are off to a good start to 2014, thanks to disciplined expense control, credit metrics near their historic low, higher revenues and a strong balance sheet that allows us to return a substantial amount of capital to shareholders.” • “Earnings per share exceeded our long-term target, and the overall performance reflected our ability to manage the business in a way that delivers bottom-line results.” • “Once again, we performed very well in the Federal Reserve's annual stress test. The results provide us with the flexibility to move forward with plans to increase the quarterly dividend by 13 percent and repurchase up to $4.4 billion of shares this year and an additional $1.0 billion during the first quarter of 2015. Our plan remains focused on balancing three priorities: supporting growth strategies, maintaining strong capital ratios and returning a substantial level of capital to our shareholders.” • “During the quarter, we launched new initiatives to expand card acceptance among smaller merchants, capture a greater share of U.S. consumers' everyday spending and extend our loyalty coalition business into Italy. These initiatives are aimed at helping us reach additional segments of the market. They put us in a stronger position to grow over the medium and long term and are making the American Express brand more welcoming and inclusive.