Is American Express Stock a Buy?

Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by Warren Buffett, holds numerous stocks in its enormous investment portfolio. The third largest holding, American Express (NYSE: AXP), has been a choice for the legendary investor for decades. That's a wonderful endorsement any company would love to have. American Express is a unique business in that it combines a credit card payments network with the best aspects of a traditional bank. Add these traits to a powerful brand, and that might be why Buffett is a fan of the company. So, is the stock a buy today? As I noted above, American Express is a payments network, connecting its 136 million cards outstanding to millions of merchants around the world. This puts it in competition with the likes of Visa and Mastercard. AmEx is a lot smaller, to be sure, processing $399 billion in total payment volume (TPV) in the latest quarter, up 14% year over year. That's compared to $3 trillion for Visa and $2.1 trillion for Mastercard. Continue reading
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