Benzinga | Jan 20, 2022 12:58PM EST

Price To Earnings Ratio Insights For American Express





Right now, American Express Inc. (NYSE:AXP) share price is at $163.78, after a 1.48% increase. Moreover, over the past month, the stock fell by 0.25%, but in the past year, increased by 29.84%. Shareholders might be interested in knowing whether the stock is overvalued, even if the company is performing up to par in the current session.

Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for shareholders trying to capitalize on the higher share price. The stock is currently below from its 52 week high by 13.36%.

The P/E ratio is used by long-term shareholders to assess the company's market performance against aggregate market data, historical earnings, and the industry at large. A lower P/E can either represent a company's poor future earnings potential or a buying opportunity relative to other stocks. It shows that shareholders are less than willing to pay a high share price, because they do not expect the company to exhibit growth, in terms of future earnings.

Depending on the particular phase of a business cycle, some industries will perform better than others.

American Express Inc. has a better P/E ratio of 16.85 than the aggregate P/E ratio of 14.73 of the Consumer Finance industry. Ideally, one might believe that American Express Inc. might perform better in the future than it's industry group, but it's probable that the stock is overvalued.

P/E ratio is not always a great indicator of the company's performance. Depending on the earnings makeup of a company, investors can become unable to attain key insights from trailing earnings.