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FY2025 Q4
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American Express Company earnings call
Buzzberg read
Platinum refresh driving strong demand and engagement
Amex reported strong FY2025 with 10% revenue growth to $72B and EPS of $15.38. Management guided FY2026 revenue growth of 9-10% and EPS of $17.30-$17.90, highlighting continued investment in premium products, technology, and marketing efficiency. The call emphasized the successful US Platinum card refresh, strong credit quality, and competitive dynamics in commercial and consumer card markets. FY2025 revenue $72B (+10%), EPS $15.38 (+15% ex-certify gains).
Buzzberg read Platinum refresh driving strong demand and engagement Amex reported strong FY2025 with 10% revenue growth to $72B and EPS of $15.38. Management guided FY2026 revenue growth of 9-10% and EPS of $17.30-$17.90, highlighting continued investment in premium products, technology, and marketing efficiency. The call emphasized the successful US Platinum card refresh, strong credit quality, and competitive dynamics in commercial and consumer card markets. FY2025 revenue $72B (+10%), EPS $15.38 (+15% ex-certify gains). Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Amex reported strong FY2025 with 10% revenue growth to $72B and EPS of $15.38. Management guided FY2026 revenue growth of 9-10% and EPS of $17.30-$17.90, highlighting continued investment in premium products, technology, and marketing efficiency. The call emphasized the successful US Platinum card refresh, strong credit quality, and competitive dynamics in commercial and consumer card markets. FY2025 revenue $72B (+10%), EPS $15.38 (+15% ex-certify gains).
- 2026 guidance: revenue growth 9-10%, EPS $17.30-$17.90.
- Platinum card refresh driving strong demand, high engagement, and lowest acquisition costs in two years.
- Credit metrics remain best-in-class and below 2019 levels; management expects stability in 2026.
Revenue$21.041B+2% QoQ
EPS$3.53-15% QoQ
Gross margin83.49%Reported
Operating margin14.69%Reported
6 grounded callouts
What matters now
The highest-signal changes from the call.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing dollars reallocated to premium products
Guidance
2026 guidance: 9-10% revenue growth, EPS $17.30-$17.90
Show 3 more callouts
Credit
Credit quality remains best-in-class and stable
Technology
Tech investments drive operational efficiencies
Commercial
Commercial strategy to be unveiled with Center integration
Reported period
Actuals
| Metric | Reported | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $21.041B | +2% QoQ |
| EPS | $3.53 | -15% QoQ |
| Gross margin | 83.49% | Reported |
| Operating margin | 14.69% | Reported |
| Free cash flow | $2.346B | -58% QoQ |
| Capex | $0.721B | Reported |
Forward-looking
Forward guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 | $17.30–$17.90 | $17.60 | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2026 | 9%–10% | 9.5% | Guided |
AI, capex & demand read
Management read
Confident
Management expressed strong confidence in the premium customer base, momentum from investments, and reiterated 2026 guidance with a planned dividend increase, indicating a positive outlook.
Management AI read
Management discussed the development of a new third-generation data and analytics platform built on the public cloud, which will enable greater personalization, improve marketing and servicing, and support new Gen AI and agentic use cases. They also created an enterprise AI enablement layer and are deploying Gen AI tools to nearly all colleagues worldwide, while reducing time for key processes in
all 10 named companies below
Companiesreturns since call
Partners
Partners
Steve Squirey
Renewal of co-brand partnership signals continued collaboration; positive for British Airways' loyalty program revenue.
Evidence
“renewed and expanded our relationships with key international co-brand partners, including British Airways, ANA, and Air France KLM.”
Partners
Steve Squirey
Toast partnership integrates restaurant POS data, likely driving incremental transaction volume for Toast.
Evidence
“We continued to build our membership assets with new lounges, the expansion of our hotel network, the Toast partnership, and a series of new card member experiences.”
Partners
Steve Squirey
Amex Platinum benefit driving higher spend at Lululemon, which may boost LULU's sales from premium cardholders.
Evidence
“The engagement with Lululemon, the engagement with Resi, the engagement with the hotel credit was pretty quick with our existing customers.”
Competitors
Competitors
Steve Squirey
Platinum card refresh drove lowest acquisition costs in two years while shifting mix to fee-paying cardholders, suggesting Amex is gaining marketing efficiency versus peers. — If Amex can acquire premium cardholders more cheaply, it puts pressure on competitors to either match value props or accept higher churn.
Evidence
“you just saw Capital One just acquired Brex. You've got Ramp out there. We acquired Center last year, which we'll be launching probably by mid-year.”
Competitors
Steve Squirey
Platinum card refresh drove lowest acquisition costs in two years while shifting mix to fee-paying cardholders, suggesting Amex is gaining marketing efficiency versus peers. — If Amex can acquire premium cardholders more cheaply, it puts pressure on competitors to either match value props or accept higher churn.
Evidence
“J.P. Morgan's out there, Citi's out there, Capital One's out there.”
Supply chain
Supply chain
Steve Squirey
Amex's shift to in-house expense management (Center) from Concur/SAP could reduce SAP's revenue from Concur partnership and signals a broader trend of vertical integration in corporate card software. — If other large issuers follow Amex's lead, Concur (SAP) may lose a key distribution channel for corporate T&E solutions.
Evidence
“rather than partnering with expense management providers as we've done with whether it was Concur or IBM before that, we'll now have our own expense management offering.”
External signals
Supply-chain alpha · 3returns since call
Platinum card refresh drove lowest acquisition costs in two years while shifting mix to fee-paying cardholders, suggesting Amex is gaining marketing efficiency versus peers.
Evidence
“We've seen some of the lowest cost of acquisition for platinum in the last two years happening like in Q4.”
Amex credit metrics remain below 2019 levels and flat, while the company notes competitors are guiding for credit deterioration, implying a relative credit advantage.
Amex's shift to in-house expense management (Center) from Concur/SAP could reduce SAP's revenue from Concur partnership and signals a broader trend of vertical integration in corporate card software.
Methodology & coverage
Management-only analysis. All 10 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.