Munger Mode rating: 4 out of 5 — Buy. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
American Express is one of the few genuinely wonderful businesses in American finance. It owns the card, the network, and the merchant relationship at once, and it has spent 176 years building a brand that affluent people pay for the privilege of carrying. In the last twelve months the company raised the price of its flagship product by 29 percent and lost essentially no customers. That is the clearest test of a moat we know of, and Amex passed it. The business earned a 34 percent return on equity in 2025 and 36 percent in the most recent quarter. Revenue has compounded at roughly 9 percent a year for a decade and earnings per share at roughly 12 percent, with the share count down by about a quarter. Management is competent, candid, and long-tenured, and it has chosen to reinvest an earnings windfall rather than flatter the current year's numbers, which is exactly the behavior we want.
Recent filings analysed: 8-K (2026-09-15), 8-K (2026-08-17), 8-K (2026-08-12), 8-K (2026-08-05).
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