Stock Price Inches up as American Express Settles Anti-Trust Cases

American Express Company (AXP) yesterday, settled two class-action lawsuits by agreeing to change some of its credit and charge card policies. The settlement comes after extended litigation with merchants and retailers who claimed that Amex’s card practices had driven up their costs. Shares of American Express were up 0.3% in after hours, after closing at $86.4 yesterday during normal trading session.

According to the terms of the agreement, American Express has agreed to relax its previous rules that had limited merchants’ ability to add a surcharge to customers who used Amex cards. Amex also agreed to pay $75 million in litigation charges related to attorney fees in the two cases which began almost a decade ago. The plaintiff in one of the cases was Marcus Corp., a Milwaukee, WI-based hotel and theatre operator, which had sued American Express and called the company’s transaction fee policies exuberant and predatory.

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American Express Posts Earnings in Line With Estimates

American Express Company (AXP), the country’s third-largest card payment network, announced fourth quarter (4Q) earnings for its fiscal year 2013 (FY13), which ended December 31. In the conference call yesterday, the company said that net income for the quarter was just over $1.3 billion, almost double the earnings of $637 million in 4QFY12.

Quarterly earnings per share (EPS) came in at $1.21, a considerable jump from $0.56 in 4QFY12, while revenues for the quarter increased 5% to $8.54 billion. Adjusting for one-time litigation costs arising from its recent class action settlement with merchants, AmEx’s comparable EPS was $1.25, in line with analysts’ mean estimates.

Quarterly revenues were also in line with estimates, with total expenses for the quarter down 8% to $6 billion. At the open AmEx’s share price was up 4%.

For the full fiscal year 2013, AmEx reported revenues of $32.9 billion, up 4% from 31.5 billion a year ago, while per-share earnings jumped 25% to $4.88 in. Net income for the year also increased 20% to $5.36 billion. The favorable numbers were driven predominantly by global AmEx card member spending, which rose 8%. This was helped by increased domestic retail spending in the holiday season. Rising card payment volumes in emerging markets further contributed to the company’s growing bottom line.

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