How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in American Express (AXP) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to AXP for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

American Express' Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at American Express' main business drivers. Founded in 1850, NY-based American Express Company is a diversified financial services company, offering charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. American Express and its main subsidiary – American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (“TRS”) – are bank holding companies under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. The company offers business travel-related services through its non-consolidated joint venture, American Express Global Business Travel (the GBT JV).

The company’s range of products and services include charge card, credit card and other payment and financing products; Merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, and point-of-sale marketing and information products and services for merchants; Network services; other fee services, including fraud prevention services and the design and operation of customer loyalty programs; Expense management products and services and Travel-related services.

The company’s reporting segments are as follows:

U.S. Consumer Services (USCS): (46.4% of 2023 total segment’s revenue net of interest expense) It issues a varied array of proprietary consumer cards. The segment also extends travel and lifestyle services and banking and non-card financing products to U.S. consumers.

Commercial Services (CS): (24.4%) This unit offers a wide range of proprietary cards, payment and expense management services coupled with banking and non-card financing products to U.S-based corporates and small business clients.

International Card Services (ICS): (17.2%) It issues a diversified range of proprietary consumer, small business and corporate cards outside the United States. Offering services to the international customers of American Express and managing specific international joint ventures as well as its loyalty coalition businesses are among the segment’s functions.

Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS): (12%) It operates a global payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants and extends multi-channel marketing programs and capabilities, services and data analytics through leveraging the company’s integrated network capabilities. The company announced to sell its Accertify business to Accel-KKR, which is expected to close by the second quarter of 2024.