NEW YORK (AP) – American Express said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit jumped 37 percent, helped by the sale of its Costco credit card portfolio and increased spending on its namesake cards.
AmEx sold the Costco portfolio to Citigroup, providing one-time after-tax gain of $677 million for the April-June quarter.
The New York-based credit card company said it earned $2.02 billion in the period, or $2.10 per share. That was up from $1.47 billion, or $1.42 per share, in last year’s second quarter.
The results topped estimates from Wall Street analysts, who were looking for AmEx to earn $1.96 per share, according to FactSet. Total revenue in the quarter was $8.24 billion, down 1 percent from the same period a year earlier but also topping estimates.
The sale of the Costco credit card portfolio ended a 16-year chapter in American Express’ history. Costco announced in early 2015 it was ending its relationship with AmEx, adopting Visa as its exclusive network for processing credit cards and announcing Citi as the new bank issuer for its popular cash-back credit card.