American Express (AXP, Financial) shares nosedived by 3% on Friday following 3rd quarter earnings report.

American Express surpassed EPS estimates by $0.11, achieving $3.49 per share. This performance means the company's earnings for the year ended in August exceeded consensus expectations by 6.73%, after adjusting for non-recurring items. The previous quarter saw even stronger results, with earnings beating forecasts by 8.39%; it was predicted to earn $3.22 per share but reported $3.49 instead. This marks a consistent trend of outperformance, as American Express has beaten consensus estimates in three of the past four quarters

However, looking at the revenue figure, we notice that the company has a different story to tell from its earnings. For the quarter ended June 2024, the global payments giant had posted revenues of $ 16.64 billion, slightly below the street's expectations by 0.03%. He registered a YoY growth from $15.38 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The Zacks departmental results of the company in the Financial, Miscellaneous Services industry showed a mixed picture, where American Express managed only once to beat the revenue estimates on average in the last four quarters. As to the further development of the stock, the focus will remain on management's outlook comments during the call; all the same, one has to note that the stock has already advanced 52.6% year to date, which is considerably above S&P 500's 22.5% gain over the same period.

Currently, investors, and analysts particularly fixed their eyes on whether American Express is able to sustain the strong earning growth in the light of the company's problem of failure to meet its revenue growth targets.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.