"2024 was another strong year for American Express," CEO Stephen J. Squeri said in a statement. "We exited the year with increased momentum, with billings growth accelerating to 8 percent in the fourth quarter, driven by stronger spending from our consumer and commercial customers during the holiday season."

The Wall Street Journal had reported on a series of deceptive and strong-arm tactics the card company used to increase small business sign-ups.

American Express shares fell Friday after the financial services firm reported fourth-quarter results mostly in line with analysts' expectations.

Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on American Express after the company's strong Q4 earnings, with revenue growth of 9% and plans for further growth in 2025 and 2026.

The roughly $78 billion the Oracle of Omaha has spent buying this stock since mid-2018 decisively signals it's his favorite.

In addition to an earnings beat, American Express disclosed a 17% increase to its quarterly dividend. Here's what that means for the Dow Jones stock.

The 12-month price targets assessed by analysts reveal further insights, featuring an average target of $324.82, a high estimate of $350.00, and a low estimate of $301.00. This current average has increased by 9.11% from the previous average price target of $297.70.

American Express shares fell 3.2% in morning trade and retreated from all-time highs on Friday after the company reported earnings below Wall Street expectations. However, retail sentiment on Stocktwits persevered to year highs.

CEO Michael Miebach says the card network's business in areas such as debit cards will enable it to compete if the mega merger results in the loss of Capital One's debit business.

The credit card lender and network introduced guidance for 2025 EPS of $15.00-$15.50 (midpoint $15.25), compared with the consensus estimate of $15.22 and $13.35 reported in 2024 (excluding notable items). It expects 2025 revenue growth of 8%-10% from 2024's $65.9B, implying $71.2B-$72.5B ($71.6B consensus).

American Express expects full-year earnings to be $15 to $15.50 per share. American Express shares have climbed roughly 10% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has climbed 28%. The stock has increased 76% in the last 12 months.

On Wall Street, Tesla drove 2.9% higher even though Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Mr Musk asserted Tesla will offer unsupervised “full self-driving” technology to its customers as a paid service starting in Austin in June.