American Express shares have slid to around $310, 20% below the all-time closing high of $384.79 they reached on December 11, 2025, and down 16.3% so far this year. The pullback ends a run in which the credit-card company returned 25% in 2025, 58% in 2024 and 27% in 2023.
Behind the numbers, the picture in 2026 looks less favorable. Rising inflation and higher gas prices have curtailed travel and consumer spending, taking some of the momentum out of a business tied closely to how much cardholders charge.
Revenue growth held up in the second quarter, rising 10% year over year. Earnings growth, however, has cooled: earnings rose 11% in Q2, down from 18% in Q1 and 15% in the fourth quarter of 2025. A large part of the slowdown came from expenses, which climbed 12% as the company spent more on marketing to win new cardholders and on technology.
“You need to continue to invest in acquiring high revenue-generating cardholders and high-spending cardholders to continue the really good revenue growth that we’ve seen over the last few years,” chief executive Stephen Squeri said on the second-quarter earnings call.
Some investors were unsettled when American Express lifted its full-year revenue guidance to 10% growth, from a prior 9% to 10% range, while leaving its earnings guidance unchanged. That gap raised concerns about heavier spending through the rest of the year.
Valuation added to the sell-off. The stock’s price-to-earnings ratio had reached 25 at the end of 2025, a level not seen since 2021 and high by the company’s own history. It has since fallen to 18, the lowest in more than a year.