Filed under: Earnings reports, American Express (AXP), Options, Technical Analysis

American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) shares are rising today in anticipation of AXP’s earnings announcement this evening. Earlier this month, the company forecast a fourth-quarter profit below year-ago results, and said a flagging U.S. economy will hurt annual profit in 2008. The company also set aside $440 million in the quarter to cover expected defaults. Analysts are expecting a fourth-quarter profit of 71 cents a share on revenue of $7.85 billion. One thing to keep in mind is that AXP has missed analysts’ earnings estimates in each of the last three quarters. If you think that the company won’t fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on AXP.

After hitting a one-year high of $65.89 in July, the stock hit a one-year low of $41.15 last week. AXP opened this morning at $46.10. So far today the stock has hit a low of $45.03 and a high of $46.35. As of 10:40, AXP is trading at $46.32, up 88 cents (1.9%). The chart for AXP looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

Continue reading American Express (AXP) Q4 earnings preview

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.