American Express forecast annual profit largely above Wall Street expectations on Friday, underscoring resilient spending by its young and affluent customers, but a small miss on holiday-quarter profit weighed on its shares. The results highlighted diverging spending patterns with many U.S. consumers cutting back under the weight of elevated borrowing costs and still-high inflation while higher-income households continued to splurge on travel, dining and luxury.
“We’re not projecting any discontinuity,” AmEx CFO Christophe Le Caillec told Reuters. “Spend that Gen Z and millennials have on their American Express cards is now bigger than Gen X,” he said. Le Caillec said this was a first for its U.S. consumer business and reflected the company’s long-standing efforts to build a younger and premium customer base. The company forecast 2026 earnings per share between $17.30 and $17.90. The midpoint of the range is above analysts’ average projection of $17.41 per share, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
AmEx’s profit came in at $3.53 per share in the three months ended December 31, a touch below estimates of $3.54. Citigroup analysts attributed the narrow miss to higher expenses, which rose 10% to $14.5 billion in the last three months of 2025. The company’s shares were last down about 2% in morning trading in a weak broader market. “If there is a rub, perhaps it is that fourth-quarter clearly shows the cost of the Platinum refresh, but doesn’t show a corresponding bump on new accounts,” analysts at Truist wrote in a note. Last year, AmEx unveiled long-awaited upgrades to its U.S. Platinum cards with new perks. The credit card giant’s shares had gained 24.7% in 2025, outperforming rivals Visa’s 11% and Mastercard’s 8.4%.
