American Express revenue

American Express Co (NYSE:AXP), one of the leaders in the U.S. plastic card market, posted a six-fold increase in net income in the first quarter to 2.2 billion dollars, or 2.74 dollars per share, compared with 367 million dollars, or 0.41 dollar per share, in the same period last year.

The sharp increase was mainly due to a 1.05 billion dissolution of reserves on the back of a continued improvement in the macroeconomic outlook and a strong performance in the lending business.

The company said in a press release that its revenue fell 12 per cent to 9.06bn dollars from 10.31bn dollars a year earlier. This was driven by lower lending volumes and lower card costs.

Profit exceeded expectations, but revenue came in below consensus estimates. FactSet said most analysts surveyed had estimated earnings at 1.61 dollar per share on revenue of 9.21bn dollars.

AmEx's revenue in personal services fell 11% last quarter to 5.3 billion dollars, in merchant services fell 13% to 1.2 billion dollars and in commercial services fell 14% to 2.7 billion dollars.

AmEx shares are down in pre-market trading on Friday. The company's capitalisation is up 16.7 in the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9.1 per cent.