Credit card firm American Express didn’t have the kind of results in the first quarter that the Wall Street analysts expected, but CEO Stephen Squeri doesn’t see this as an issue for the company. Speaking with Yahoo Finance on Thursday, Squeri said that he is quite pleased with AmEx’s performance in the first three months of 2023.
AmEx reported revenue of $14.3 billion, which represents a 22% year-over-year increase and beats Wall Street estimates of $14.03 billion. But the company’s profit took a significant hit, seeing a 13% slide in Q1 and coming to $1.8 billion. The diluted earnings per share of $2.40 ended up missing the $2.65 mark expected by Wall Street.
“So the $2.40 is a good number — the $2.40 beat our plan,” Squeri told Yahoo Finance. “… So there really isn’t anything in the quarter for us that went really unexpected other than the mark to market, but that was offset by a one-time tax gain.”
The company expects a profit between $11 to $11.40 per share in 2023, which is in line with the $11.10 estimated by analysts.
After American Express earnings became public, the company’s stock dropped by 3% compared to Wednesday’s close price of $164.95 per share. AmEx shares have jumped more than 12% in 2023.