BMO Capital Initiates Coverage of American Express at Outperform
Fintel reports that on October 9, 2026, BMO Capital initiated coverage of American Express (NYSE:AXP) (LSE:0R3C) with a Outperform recommendation. This rating action occurred alongside another same-day action for the financial services company, as RBC Capital maintained its Outperform rating on October 9, 2026.
American Express Company, headquartered in the United States, operates primarily in the financial services industry, focusing extensively on payment card products and travel-related services globally. The company leverages a wide network of card-issuing partnerships with banks and financial institutions worldwide, and is renowned for its credit card, charge card, and travelers' cheque businesses. Prior to the rating action, the stock closed at $308.10 on October 8, 2026. This latest close represents a price change of +1.99% over one week, compared to a baseline close of $302.09 on October 1, 2026. Over a one-month period, the stock experienced a price change of -5.52% from a baseline close of $326.10 on September 8, 2026.
Prior to BMO Capital's initiation, the broader analyst consensus target for American Express was recorded at a mean of $385.12 and a median of $389.64 as of October 2, 2026. This mean target represented an implied change of +25.00% from the stock's trading levels. This consensus target reflects a revision of +0.44% from the prior consensus target mean of $383.45 recorded on September 16, 2026. In terms of aggregate recommendations, the current recommendation period as of September 1, 2026, showed a total of 37 analysts tracking the stock. This group consisted of 5 strong buy, 15 buy, 16 hold, 0 sell, and 1 strong sell recommendations, resulting in 54.1% positive, 43.2% hold, and 2.7% negative recommendations. These figures remained unchanged from the prior recommendation period as of August 1, 2026, which also recorded 37 total recommendations with the same distribution.
American Express reported its latest earnings on July 24, 2026, posting an actual EPS of 4.53 against an estimate of 4.4483, representing an EPS surprise of +1.84%. The company's actual revenue for the quarter was $19,637,000,000.00, compared to the estimated revenue of $19,902,907,540.00. The company's upcoming earnings date is scheduled for October 23, 2026, before the market open. In the days leading up to BMO Capital's coverage initiation, several other firms maintained their ratings on the stock. TD Cowen maintained a Hold rating on October 6, 2026. On October 5, 2026, both Barclays and UBS maintained their respective ratings of Equal-Weight and Neutral. Earlier, Evercore ISI Group maintained an In-Line rating on October 1, 2026, and Citigroup maintained a Neutral rating on September 30, 2026.
Recent analyst actions
| Date | Analyst | Prior | Latest recommendation | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 9, 2026 | BMO Capital | Outperform | initiated coverage | |
| October 9, 2026 | RBC Capital | Outperform | Outperform | maintained |
| October 6, 2026 | TD Cowen | Hold | Hold | maintained |
| October 5, 2026 | Barclays | Equal-Weight | Equal-Weight | maintained |
| October 5, 2026 | UBS | Neutral | Neutral | maintained |
| October 1, 2026 | Evercore ISI Group | In-Line | In-Line | maintained |
| September 30, 2026 | Citigroup | Neutral | Neutral | maintained |
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This story originally appeared on Fintel.