American Express Co

American Express (AXP) expects its full-year 2016 EPS to be between $5.40–$5.70. It looks to return to positive EPS growth in 2016 and is targeting a minimum of $5.60 EPS for 2017.

As of October 2017, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) stock has returned 3.2% in the past month and 31.4% over the past four quarters.

American Express’s (AXP) total revenues (net of interest expense) were $8.8 billion in 4Q17 compared to $8 billion in 4Q16.

MasterCard’s rebates and incentives rose by 18% to $1.0 billion in 1Q16—higher than expected, mainly due to the timing of some deals and acquisitions.

Blue Harbour initiated a new position in Alliance Data Systems (ADS) in 4Q14. It bought 1,153,390 shares worth $43 million. ADS accounts for 1.41% of the fund’s portfolio.

Visa (V) has maintained its operating margin above 60% over the past few years. The company’s major expenses include personnel, marketing, network and processing, and professional fees.

Visa’s total transactions grew by 11% on a YoY (year-over-year) basis in fiscal 4Q15. The company reported total transactions of 27.9 billion in fiscal 4Q15, as compared to 25 billion in fiscal 4Q14.

MasterCard (MA) is expected to release its 1Q17 earnings on April 27, 2017. Its EPS is expected to be $0.94, a 9.3% rise year-over-year.

Visa (V) is expected to post EPS (earnings per share) of $1.11 in the third fiscal quarter (ending in June), boosted by strong business fundamentals.

Payment processors are seeing major changes in 2016, including increased competition on pricing and the adoption of new technologies such as wearables.

Payment processors are rewarding their shareholders with 1%–2% dividend yields, largely dependent on operating performance.

MasterCard (MA) has debt of $3.3 billion with a total balance sheet of $15.9 billion as of March 31, 2016. This compares to $16.2 billion in 4Q15.

Despite frequent criticism from Trump, the Fed went ahead with four rate hikes last year.

Mastercard benefited from the Latin America region. The region witnessed favorable momentum in consumer confidence and lower unemployment.

American Express (AXP) has been using its strong balance sheet position to consistently declare dividends to its shareholders.

The holdings of the DFA Commodity Strategy Portfolio – Institutional Class (DCMSX) mainly consist of corporate and government bonds.

Apple Pay beat eBay’s PayPal and Google in in-store mobile payments. PayPal’s strong relationship with retailers places it as a significant player in this space.

Bridgewater Associates reduced its position in Microsoft. According to 13F filings for 3Q14, it accounts for 0.01% of the total portfolio.

The DFA Commodity Strategy Portfolio – Institutional Class (DCMSX) is an alternative mutual fund that uses a commodity hedge fund return strategy.

Discover Financial’s (DFS) Payment Services segment saw a rise in its pretax income from $107.0 million in 2016 to $145.0 million in 2017.

Apple could disrupt the business of established players PayPal and Square in the person-to-person payment-processing market.

Boeing stock fell 10.3% last week—the biggest weekly loss in the last three years. The stock fell 11.4% during the week ending February 12, 2016.

On April 9, 2018, Mastercard (MA) made an announcement regarding the integration of its Masterpass service with the My Phillips 66 app.

In what appears to be a major break from industry tradition and a possible setback for Apple (AAPL), Samsung (SSNLF) is expanding the availability of its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay.

DCMSX is an alternative mutual fund that has suffered due to its commodity real return strategy.

Discover Financial Services’ (DFS) Direct Banking segment generated pretax income of $3.4 billion in 2017.

Discover Financial’s (DFS) stock price rose from $14.70 at the end of 2009 to $65.50 at the end of 2014. This is an increase of 346%.

Worldpay (WP) and Visa (V) said Bitcoin participants who have executed transactions on Coinbase through debit or credit card may have come across duplicate transactions.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) has a price-to-earnings ratio on an NTM (next-12-months) basis of ~8.9x, which highlights its lower valuations.

During 1Q15, Discover repurchased ~6 million shares of common stock. This resulted in a 1% decline in the common stock outstanding from the previous quarter.

According to the institutional ownership report, Berkshire Hathaway is the largest investor in Kraft Heinz with 325.6 million shares as of June 30, 2017.

Today, Sun Trust Banks and BB&T announced a merger that would create the sixth largest bank in the United States.

Since 2010, SAP AG (SAP) spent more than ~$12 billion on acquisitions. Concur Technologies is the largest acquisition in SAP’s 42-year history. In its 2Q14 results, most of SAP’s growth was from its cloud business—approximately $1 billion annually. Concur’s management mentioned that they expect to end fiscal year 2014 with ~$690 million.

Wells Fargo seems unlikely to put capital on a falling brand like American Express, unless Warren Buffett has a different perspective and backs a takeover.

Apple is expected to release the iPhone 6 on September 9. Its success could make people forget these issues. In addition to a bigger-screen iPhone 6, Apple is expected to introduce a few more attractive features.

Bridgewater Associates started a new position in American Express. According to 13F filings for 3Q14, it accounts for 0.15% of the total portfolio.

MasterCard (MA) has been paying dividends on its outstanding common stock for the past few quarters and is expected to continue this legacy.

Of the 285 analysts covering the diversified financial services sub-group, there are 162 “buy,” 15 “sell,” and 108 “hold” ratings on the group.

Wall Street analysts have given a price target of $84.84 on Amex stock, which implies a rise of 0.6% from its current price level.

Visa (V) reported total processed transactions of 27.9 billion in 4Q15 compared to 25 billion in 4Q14. Total transactions are payments and cash transactions reported by clients on operating certificates.

US markets gained on Friday, January 22, 2016, backed by a recovery in oil prices. Although broad markets gained during the week, the financial sector continued to see weakness.

Payment processors are rewarding their shareholders with dividend yields of 1%–2%, depending largely on operating performance.

Visa saw growth in its international payments volume on a constant dollar basis, mainly due to spending in Sub-Saharan Africa and Mexico.

In 4Q15, Capital One’s non-performing loans in its Commerical Banking segment increased to $550 million due to downgrades of oil and gas loans.

Visa announced partnerships with the China Foundation for Development of Financial Education and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

Today at 7:02 AM ET, AXP stock rose 1.1% to $84.10 in the pre-market session. The company reported its first-quarter earnings results on April 24.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares have fallen 25% in 2020, while the S&P 500 has fallen 28.5%. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest holding.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) stock soared 3% yesterday after the company provided an optimistic 2020 earnings outlook and disclosed a new investment.

Berkshire Hathaway is a huge conglomerate with diverse operations. The company’s operations are complex, so let’s take an easy-to-understand approach.

Balance transfer Citigroup cards allow you to transfer your balances from a high-interest credit card to a Citi low-interest card.

Citigroup is the world’s largest credit card issuer. Bank of America and Capital One follow Citigroup in terms of credit and charge volume.

Consensus Wall Street analyst estimates project revenue of $27.6 billion for Costco in fiscal 3Q16—an implied increase of 3.4% YoY.

Credit card loans account for more than half of Bank of America’s total consumer loan portfolio.

On Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) (BRK.A) released its third-quarter 13F. There were some surprises in the filing. The company took a new stake in RH.

At the end of the third quarter, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Biogen, UnitedHealth, and Walmart (WMT) were Renaissance Technologies’ top five buys.

Visa (V) reported strong net revenues in fiscal 3Q17 on the back of processed transactions, cross-border volumes, and payments volumes.

The US GDP increased at an impressive rate of 1.9% for the third quarter. The growth beat the expectations of around 1.6% for the quarter.

Mastercard just posted a solid earnings beat. It’s been a blockbuster Q3 for payment companies, with Visa and American Express beating projections, too.

American Express Company (AXP), the New York-based financial services company, released its third-quarter earnings on Friday.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported mixed third-quarter results this morning. Its earnings beat analysts’ consensus estimate, but its revenue missed.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) could register strong year-over-year growth in its Q3 earnings, mainly driven by higher revenues and moderate fuel costs.

On August 24, in an interview with CNBC, Mario Gabelli encouraged value investing. He is the CEO, chairman, and founder of GAMCO Investors.

On Thursday, Delta Air Lines announced a partnership with LATAM Airlines in a deal worth $2.25 billion. Delta will acquire a 20% stake in LATAM.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index or DJIA gained a marginal 0.06% today to close trading just below 27,000—despite a bleak picture in Europe’s economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53.44 points (or 0.2%) today, possibly because the market gave a thumbs up to yesterday’s 0.25% rate cut by the Fed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index has fallen 0.4% or by 115 points today. The index is trading lower after rising for eight consecutive trading sessions.

Warren Buffet loves banking stocks. Out of his current portfolio of 47 stocks, five are commercial banks, including two regional banks.

American Express (AXP) reported its second-quarter earnings results on Friday before the market opened. Its EPS beat analysts’ consensus estimate.

Visa (V) is trading at a forward PE ratio of 27.7x, which is higher than its five-year average PE ratio of 24.5x.

StoneCo (STNE) was trading down 27.6% as of 1:30 PM ET. The negative price action was driven by an announcement by Itaú Unibanco Holding (ITUB).

Visa (V) has seen three upward revisions in its target price in April. On April 10, Cowen increased its target price for Visa from $161 to $177.

The implied volatility in Visa fell by ~12.5 percentage points from January 2 to 18.73% on April 12. Visa stock has risen ~21% during this period.

Visa (V) is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings on April 24. In the quarter ending December 31, Visa reported 7% sequential EPS growth.

Delta Airlines stock was up 3% in premarket trading on April 10 after it released better-than-expected results for the first quarter.

Delta-AmEx renewed deal On April 2, Delta Air Lines (DAL) announced that it had renewed its 23-year long credit-card partnership with American Express (AXP) for another 11 years. The renewed partnership deal, which will run through 2029, is likely to bring in massive incremental revenues for the airline in the next few years. With this […]

Raises outlook Delta Air Lines (DAL) shares jumped over 6% on April 2 after the company increased its first-quarter guidance. The airline cited robust passenger demand and a renewed credit-card deal with American Express (AXP) as the main reasons behind the upbeat guidance. Delta now expects its first-quarter revenues to increase by 7% YoY (year-over-year), […]

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) has invested in several payment industry stocks like Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), American Express (AXP), and StoneCo.

Among Berkshire Hathaway’s financial holdings, JPMorgan Chase was the worst performer, while Goldman Sachs was the top performer.

Earlier this week, Apple (AAPL) announced new services including video streaming, a gaming subscription, and a credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs (GS).

In the previous part of this series, we discussed why Tesla’s (TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk, might be on the verge of more trouble.

Warren Buffett said, “For nearly three decades, the initial paragraph featured the percentage change in Berkshire’s per-share book value. It’s now time to abandon that practice.”

In his 2002 shareholder letter, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) chair Warren Buffett shared his views on derivatives.

One of the world’s most successful investors of all times, Warren Buffett believes in investing for the long term.

In Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) annual shareholder letter, Buffett revealed that his investment firm received dividends of about $3.8 billion from its investees in 2018.

In the previous part of this series, we looked at Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) huge losses of over $25 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.

On Saturday, February 23, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) released its fourth-quarter earnings report.

In the annual shareholder letter, Buffett lamented the lack of big acquisition opportunities, which he called “elephants.”

Berkshire Hathaway is the largest shareholder in Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), U.S. Bancorp (USB), and American Express (AXP).

In Q4 2018, Third Point initiated a new position in Cigna (CI), which is an American healthcare services organization.

In the first three quarters of 2018, world-renowned billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway increased its bets on the banking sector.

Apple (AAPL), which was Buffett’s top holding at the end of the third quarter, saw a selling spree in the fourth quarter.

So far in this series, we’ve looked at Warrant Buffet’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A)(BRK.B), top five investments in the third quarter.

Mastercard (MA) stock rose ~3% in premarket trading on October 30 following its announcement of its impressive third-quarter results.

PayPal finished the third quarter with 254.0 million active customers on its platform.

Visa’s adjusted fourth-quarter EPS jumped 34% year-over-year to $1.21 and surpassed Wall Street analysts’ estimates by a penny.

A healthy job market and a steady hike in wages have increased the spending power of consumers.