Did Buffett Successor Pick Wrong Credit Card Stock? American Express Stock Underperforms Visa, Mastercard
Key takeaways
- Berkshire Hathaway’s decision to keep American Express over Visa and Mastercard has cost it a sizable upside, reflecting a broader underperformance of AXP versus its peers in 2026.
- 151,610,700 shares of AXP held by Berkshire
- AXP up 5.4% since end of Q1 2026
- Visa up 36.2% since end of Q1 2026
What happened
American Express (AXP) shares fell on Friday after the company reported its latest quarterly results, adding to a 14.5% year‑to‑date decline in 2026. Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Warren Buffett at the end of 2025, had trimmed the conglomerate’s portfolio from 42 to 29 holdings in Q1, dropping its large positions in Visa (MA) and Mastercard (V) while keeping its 151,610,700‑share stake in AXP unchanged. Over the seven months since the first quarter, AXP has risen…
Why it matters
The performance gap shows that Berkshire Hathaway could have earned significantly more by holding Visa and Mastercard instead of AXP, highlighting a potential misstep in Abel’s early portfolio choices. It also underscores the broader market trend of credit‑card issuers, where Visa and Mastercard are outperforming…
Short-term and longer-term
Short-term. Over the next few days, watch AXP’s price for any reaction to the quarterly earnings release and the market’s comparison to Visa and Mastercard.
Longer-term. For the coming months, the underperformance of AXP relative to Visa and Mastercard could prompt a reassessment of the credit‑card industry’s growth prospects.