NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of American Express Co. are lower by 0.98% to $78.85 at the start of trading on Tuesday morning, following a ratings downgrade to "underperform" from "perform" at Oppenheimer. The firm said it lowered its rating on the credit card and global services company based on its belief American Express is facing structural headwinds. Oppenheimer has a $68 price target on the stock. "AXP is one of the most controversial names in large-cap financials right now. It's either a great buy because the multiple is lower than it's been in a long time or there are real structural headwinds. After a deep dive into what we consider structural headwinds we are downgrading shares to 'underperform' and setting a $68 price target. While it may feel like recent bad news is a lot of one offs, we think that it is more of a symptom and that profitability of the underlying business is under pressure," Oppenheimer said in an analyst note. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates AMERICAN EXPRESS CO as a Buy with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (AXP) a BUY. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its notable return on equity, good cash flow from operations, increase in net income, growth in earnings per share and reasonable valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. When compared to other companies in the Consumer Finance industry and the overall market, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO's return on equity exceeds that of the industry average and significantly exceeds that of the S&P 500. Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 598.83% to $2,404.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 262.82%. The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Consumer Finance industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 10.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $1,308.00 million to $1,447.00 million. Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 6.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.4%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO has improved earnings per share by 14.9% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. However, we anticipate underperformance relative to this pattern in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO increased its bottom line by earning $5.55 versus $4.88 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 0.9% in earnings ($5.50 versus $5.55). You can view the full analysis from the report here: AXP Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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