American Express Company (AXP) analysis

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Health is the debt of the credit book, not of a closed brand. Quality separates the merchant fee from the annual fee and from the lending margin. Growth follows spend and cardholders, and they need not rise together. P/E is read against a year of heavy travel, not against that peak. Shareholder return, if any, comes out of that cash. Do not read it as a higher rate already measured.

The P/E of a year of heavy spend is not the earnings if the cardholder cancels. EV/EBITDA is read with unpaid balances inside. Do not use Visa's multiple, which does not lend the card, as if the network and the credit were the same book. A dash if the AXP cache is cold.

Limits of this report

Not advice on American Express. Vaultflake does not state the merchant rate and does not treat the cardholder as income already measured. Read the filings. The table is a snapshot, not a target price.

Questions from this report