American Express Co (American Express Co) Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based)

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For the Credit Services subindustry, American Express Co's Price-to-DCF (Earnings Based), along with its competitors' market caps and Price-to-DCF (Earnings Based) data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

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For the Credit Services industry and Financial Services sector, American Express Co's Price-to-DCF (Earnings Based) distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where American Express Co's Price-to-DCF (Earnings Based) falls into.

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American Express Co Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) Calculation

This is the intrinsic value calculated from the Discounted Earnings model with default parameters. The calculation method is the same as Discounted Cash Flow model except earnings are used in the calculation instead of free cash flow. This is the default method of calculation with GuruFocus DCF calculator.

Usually a two-stage model is used in calculating the intrinsic value with discounted cash flow model. The first stage is called growth stage; the second is called the terminal stage. In the growth stage the company grows at a faster rate. Because it cannot grow at that rate forever, a lower rate is used for the terminal stage.

GuruFocus DCF calculator is a two-stage model. The default values are defined as:

1. Discount Rate: d = 11%
A reasonable discount rate assumption should be at least the long term average return of the stock market, which can be estimated from risk free rate plus risk premium of stock market. GuruFocus uses 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate as the risk-free rate and rounded up to the nearest integer. It is updated daily. The current risk-free rate is 4.62%. Please go to Economic Indicators page for more information. Please note that we use the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate of the country/region where the company is headquartered. If the data for that country/region is not available, then we will use the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate of the United States as default. Then we added a risk premium of 6% to get the estimated discount rate. Some investors use their expected rate of return, which is also reasonable. A typical discount rate can be anywhere between 6% - 20%.

2. Growth Rate in the growth stage: g1 = 8.00%
The Growth Rate in the growth stage is initially set as the default 10-Year EPS without NRI Growth Rate. In cases where the 10-year growth rate is unavailable, it defaults to using the 5-Year EPS without NRI Growth Rate. If both the 10-year and 5-year growth rates are unavailable, the system defaults to the 3-Year EPS without NRI Growth Rate.
However, it's important to note that there is a growth rate range. If the calculated growth rate exceeds 20%, it will be capped at 20%. Conversely, if the calculated growth rate falls below 5%, it will be adjusted to 5% to maintain a reasonable range.
=> American Express Co's average EPS without NRI Growth Rate in the past 10 years was 8.00%, which is between 5% and 20%. => GuruFocus defaults => Growth Rate: 8.00%

3. Years of Growth Stage: y1 = 10

4. Terminal Growth Rate: g2 = 4%

5. Years of Terminal Growth: y2 = 10

6. EPS without NRI: eps without nri = $11.210.
GuruFocus DCF calculator is actually a Discounted Earnings calculator, EPS without NRI is used as the default. The reason we are doing this is we found that historically stock prices are more correlated with earnings than free cash flow.

All of the default settings can be changed and the results are calculated automatically.

American Express Co's Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) for today is calculated as:

set x = (1+g1)/(1+d) = (1+0.08)/(1+0.11) = 0.97297297297297
and y = (1+g2)/(1+d) = (1+0.04)/(1+0.11) = 0.93693693693694

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

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American Express Co  (NYSE:AXP) Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) Explanation

Unlike valuation methods such as Net Current Asset Value, Tangible Book Value per Share, Graham Number, Median Ratio etc, discounted Cash Flow model evaluates the companies based on their future earnings power instead of their assets.

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Be Aware

What you need to know about Discounted Earnings model:

1. The Discounted Earnings model evaluates a company based on its future earnings power
2. Growth is taken into account; therefore a faster growth company is worth more if everything else is the same.
3. Since we are projecting future growth, it is assumed that the company will grow at the same rate as it did during the past 10 years. Therefore this model works better for the companies that are relatively consistent performers.
4. The Discounted Earnings model works poorly for inconsistent performers like cyclicals.
5. Your expected return from the investment is a reasonable discount rate assumption.
6. A larger margin of safety should be required for companies with less predictable businesses.

You can screen for stocks that trade below their Intrinsic Value: DCF (FCF Based) and Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) with the GuruFocus All-in-One Screener. Companies with a high Predictability Rank that trade at a discount to their Intrinsic Value: DCF (FCF Based) and Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) can be found in the screen of Undervalued Predictable Companies.

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American Express Co Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of American Express Co's Intrinsic Value: DCF (Earnings Based) provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.

Predictability Rank Intrinsic Value: DCF (FCF Based) Intrinsic Value: DCF (Dividends Based) Intrinsic Value: Projected FCF EPS without NRI Free Cash Flow Margin of Safety % (DCF FCF Based) Margin of Safety % (DCF Earnings Based) Margin of Safety % (DCF Dividends Based)

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American Express Co (American Express Co) Business Description

Executives

Jeffrey C Campbell	officer: EVP, Chief Financial Officer	4333 AMON CARTER BLVD, FORT WORTH TX 76155
Douglas E. Buckminster	officer: Pres, Int'l Consumer & SBS	200 VESEY STREET, M/S 01-50-01, NEW YORK NY 10285
Clayton Walter Joseph Iii	director	C/O APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT, INC., 9 WEST 57TH STREET, 43RD FLOOR, NEW YORK NY 10019
Caillec Christophe Le	officer: Chief Financial Officer	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Monique Herena	officer: Chief Human Resources Officer	225 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10286
Howard Grosfield	officer: President, U.S. Consumer Serv	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Quinn Jessica Lieberman	officer: Controller	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Raymond Joabar	officer: CRO and Pres., GRBC	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Denise Pickett	officer: CRO and President, GRBC Group	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Anna Marrs	officer: Pres., Global Comm. Services	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Deborah P Majoras	director	ONE PROCTER & GAMBLE PLAZA, CINCINNATI OH 45202
Rafael Marquez	officer: President, International Card	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Theodore Leonsis	director	WASHINGTON CAPITALS, 627 N GLEBE RD SUITE 850, ARLINGTON VA 22203
Stephen J Squeri	officer: EVP, Chief Information Officer	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285
Anre D Williams	officer: Pres. Global Merchant Services	200 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK NY 10285