By Allison Prang

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (January 25, 2020).

American Express Co.'s fourth-quarter profit beat Wall Street's expectations and the credit-card company gave an optimistic earnings outlook for 2020.

The company said Friday its profit was $1.69 billion, or $2.03 a share, in the quarter, 2 cents ahead of what analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. Earnings were down 16% from a year earlier, when American Express recorded an income-tax benefit.

The company expects earnings for 2020 to be between $8.85 and $9.25 a share and revenue, adjusted for foreign-exchange fluctuations, to rise between 8% and 10%, Chief Executive and Chairman Stephen Squeri said in prepared remarks. Analysts are guiding for earnings to be within that range. In 2019, earnings were $7.99 a share.

Shares of the company rose 3% Friday morning.

Total revenue net of interest expense was $11.37 billion in the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimate. Revenue was up more than 8% from the comparable quarter a year earlier.

Net card fees were $1.08 billion, up from $897 million. American Express is expecting that revenue segment to continue to grow the fastest in 2020, Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Campbell said on the company's earnings conference call Friday. For 2019, that revenue line increased 17% from a year earlier.

In the fourth quarter, total expenses increased more than 8% to $8.36 billion.

While the company's expenses rose more than expected in the fourth quarter, investors are more focused on the company's revenue and earnings hitting targets, Nomura Instinet analysts said in a note.

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2020 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

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