American Express Co Q3 2024 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Sanjay Sakhrani - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods North America - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning. I appreciate the solid results in what clearly is a softer spending backdrop. I guess I'm just thinking about the updated guidance, and as we think about that 10% plus revenue expectation in the future, I mean, is that possible in the current spending backdrop? Next year, as I think about it, NII will be slower, card fees, obviously, should be stronger, but does Billed Business have to accelerate to get to double digits? Or is there another way? Thanks.

Question: Ryan Nash - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Hey, good morning, guys. Steve, thank you for the for the branding of our conference on the prior response. So, maybe just a follow-up on Sanjay's question. When you think about the three legs of the stool, if we don't see an acceleration in Billings growth, can you maybe just talk about the drivers of EPS growth into 2025? Can you continue to sustain the mid-teens growth, even in the face of a challenging -- of a slower than aspirational revenue growth environment? Thank you.

Question: Craig Maurer - Financial Technology Partners LP - Analyst : Yes. Good morning. Thanks. I wanted to ask about business development spend came in well below what consensus was expecting. And I was curious what is happening there, whether it was a short-term phenomenon or something more long term? And just second, was there any impact from weather in the guide for the rest of the year?

Question: Richard Shane - JPMorgan - Analyst : Thanks for taking my question this morning. Look, as we move into the fourth quarter, the setup is that earnings will be way above initial guidance and even above the second quarter increase, and revenues are gravitating towards the low end of your range. That suggests credit and operating leverage are better than you expected. You've talked about the ramp in marketing, the incremental $800 million. Historically, when the earnings setup is this strong, you really pull forward investments, planting seeds for long-term revenue growth, I'm curious this year why you're letting so much fall REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 18, 2024 / 12:30PM, AXP.N - Q3 2024 American Express Co Earnings Call to the bottom line? Are you starting - as you ramp up that $800 million incremental, are you starting to see the marginal return on those investments diminish in a way that it's no longer attractive?

Question: Erika Najarian - UBS - Analyst : Hi, good morning. When I look at the supplement, it does seem like spend on a per member basis has been a little bit flatter than overall spend growth, 2% versus 6%. And clearly, that's a result of your success in adding so many new customers. If we don't get the rebound in spend growth next year -- and obviously, everyone is trying to figure out whether we're going to have the soft landing or not a soft landing. How much runway do you feel you have to continue to add new customers to keep the spend growth at the current level? And maybe as a compound question to that, maybe give us some color on where we are on the product refresh cycle?

Question: Donald Fandetti - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst : Steve, the general consensus, pretty much among everyone, is that the affluent US consumer is in good shape. I just wanted to get your sense if you're seeing anything in your data bookings that would raise concern around the sustainability of that? You've got an election coming up and things of that nature?

Question: Jeffrey Adelson - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I guess just if we look at the approximately 9% revenue growth for the year, as you sit here, only 18 days in the quarter, does that suggest that you're maybe looking for a little bit of revenue growth reacceleration in the fourth quarter here? Or, how are you thinking about that 9% for the year? Could it maybe slip a little bit below that? And when we look at the discount revenue growth, it did go under the Billed Business growth a little bit this quarter, I think the implied discount rate did drop a little bit. Is there any noise in there? Or is there something we should be aware of there?

Question: Cris Kennedy - William Blair & Company - Analyst : Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Steve, you mentioned how customers generally move from Green Cards to Gold Cards to Platinum Cards. Is there any way to think about the lifetime value or average spend by category? Thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 18, 2024 / 12:30PM, AXP.N - Q3 2024 American Express Co Earnings Call

Question: Saul Martinez - HSBC - Analyst : Hey, good morning. I wanted to ask about how to think about net interest income dynamics as we head into 2025 and just what the building blocks are? Steve, I think you mentioned that you don't want to accelerate too much from here. But if you could just -- Christophe, if you could just give us some of the building blocks in terms of how to think about NII in this rate environment? Your liability-sensitive, deposit dynamics, revolve rates, balances and stuff like that? If you could just kind of help us think through how to think about the evolution as we head out into 2025?

Question: Terry Ma - Barclays - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning. So, your card acquisitions continue to run at a pretty healthy level and your net card fee growth this quarter has already exceeded the exit rate of last year. I guess, are you running ahead of your expectations for some of these product refreshes in terms of adoption or engagement in general?

Question: Mark DeVries - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Yes, thank you. I have a related question to the impact of Fed easing on your business. Have you looked at kind of what the impact is from Fed easing and the effort to stimulate the economy on your Billed Business growth? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 18, 2024 / 12:30PM, AXP.N - Q3 2024 American Express Co Earnings Call

Question: Mihir Bhatia - BofA Securities - Analyst : Hi, good morning and thank you for taking my question. I wanted to turn to T&E spend for a second. And just a two-part question on that. The first is just on airline spend. I think it accelerated this quarter. Can you just talk about the drivers there? Was it Corporate, Consumer, both, what you saw there? And then just on restaurant spending. I think it deceled a little bit this quarter, but just going back to the opening remarks, you referenced just the investments you're making in that category between Resy and Tock and just adding those benefits to various cards. Do you expect restaurant spending as a category to become a bigger part of your business and grow? Like should we expect acceleration in that spending from here?