American Express Company

American Express runs a closed-loop payment network where it issues cards directly to consumers and businesses, and also processes transactions at merchants who accept those cards [COMPANY OVERVIEW]. They earn revenue from cardmember fees, interest on balances, merchant discount fees (what stores pay to accept Amex), and other travel and lifestyle services bundled with their premium cards [COMPANY OVERVIEW]. Unlike Visa or Mastercard, Amex controls both sides of the transaction — the cardholder relationship and the merchant relationship — which gives them higher profit margins but also limits acceptance compared to competitors.

American Express is a 175-year-old integrated payments company operating credit and charge cards, merchant services, and banking products across four business segments [COMPANY OVERVIEW]. With $211.1 billion in market cap and $80.5 billion in annual revenue, it's one of the largest players in the credit services industry [Yahoo Finance]. Berkshire Hathaway owns 22.22% of the company, making it Warren Buffett's third-largest public equity holding [EODHD].

American Express is financially healthy with strong margins, solid free cash flow generation, and conservative leverage [Yahoo Finance].