The latest trading session saw American Express (AXP) ending at $295.53, denoting a +0.04% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.5%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.08%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 1.21%.

Heading into today, shares of the credit card issuer and global payments company had lost 8.07% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 0.28% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.47% in that time.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of American Express in its forthcoming earnings report. In that report, analysts expect American Express to post earnings of $3.49 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 4.8%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $17.07 billion, reflecting an 8.01% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $15.33 per share and revenue of $71.7 billion. These totals would mark changes of +14.83% and +8.72%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for American Express. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.58% higher. American Express currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, American Express is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.27. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 10.1 of its industry.

Meanwhile, AXP's PEG ratio is currently 1.41. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Financial - Miscellaneous Services was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.99 at yesterday's closing price.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, putting it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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