Yahoo Finance AmEx (AXP) Unveils Platform to Simplify Digital B2B Payments
American Express Company AXP recently introduced a business-to-business (B2B) payments solution named Amex Business Link, which is presently used by more than 500 business clients across five countries.
The digital platform is powered by reporting and reconciliation tools. It can also establish links with API-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
American Express’ platform aims to aid third-party issuing and acquiring participants in its network as they cater to their business clients. Network participants are relieved from the previously incurred costs related to the digital onboarding of buyers and suppliers.
Further, the participants can extend lending solutions that enables them to avail working capital by buyers and suppliers. The platform also offers network participants access to a greater number of commercial clients across American Express' network.
The Amex Business Link also promises to benefit buyers and suppliers, irrespective of their scale of business. Seamless buying and selling coupled with easy management of domestic and cross-border payments are some of the benefits of the newly launched platform. Moreover, it also empowers buyers and suppliers to accept payments made through diversified modes such as card, wire and check.
The new platform is indicative of American Express’ continuous efforts to bring about speedier B2B payments. It also marks yet another investment of AXP as part of its customer acquisition, engagement and retention initiatives. An extremely useful platform like the Amex Business Link might intrigue customers to avail the solution and thereby, bolster AXP’s customer base.
In an evolving digital era wherein businesses are compelled to infuse digitization into their operations, the decision to roll out Amex Business Link is aptly timed. American Express is not content with simply launching digital payment solutions. Simultaneously, the company also has effective fraud prevention services in place that have been developed with the help of partnerships and investments. Digitization, inspite of its comfort and ease, leads to considerable cybercrimes. Thereby, AXP has secured payment rails boasting the lowest fraud rates for its network participants.
Shares of American Express have inched up 1% in a year against the industry’s decline of 16.7%.
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Zacks Rank & Key Picks
AXP currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the Finance space are Amalgamated Financial Corp. AMAL, Cathay General Bancorp CATY and First Reliance Bancshares, Inc. FSRL. While Amalgamated Financial sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Cathay General and First Reliance Bancshares carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Amalgamated Financial’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 19.41%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMAL’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 51.7%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 31.1% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. The consensus mark for AMAL’s 2022 earnings has moved 5.2% north in the past 30 days.
The bottom line of Cathay General beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 4.29%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CATY’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 29.2%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 22% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. The consensus mark for CATY’s 2022 earnings has moved 4.2% north in the past 60 days.
First Reliance Bancshares’ earnings outpaced estimates in two of the last four quarters, missed the mark once and met the same on the other occasion, the average surprise being 9.31%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FSRL’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 18.5%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 0.5% from the corresponding year-ago reported figures. The consensus mark for FSRL’s 2022 earnings has moved 13.2% north in the past 30 days.
Shares of Amalgamated Financial and Cathay General have gained 58.9% and 8.5%, respectively, in a year. However, First Reliance Bancshares stock has lost 11.2% in the same time frame.
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American Express Company (AXP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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