Street View: AmEx piles into growth, but rewards costs loom large

** American Express AXP.N raised its 2026 profit forecast above Wall Street expectations on Friday and announced plans to cut 5% of its global workforce, or about 3,500 jobs, as part of a restructuring

** Median PT of 32 brokerages covering the stock is $367 -- LSEG-compiled data

REWARDS, RESTRUCTURING, AND RESTRAINT

** Piper Sandler ("overweight," PT: $415) the planned workforce reduction could improve efficiency, but lack of detail on recurring savings and reinvestment makes it premature to consider it a meaningful earnings driver

** Morgan Stanley ("equal weight," PT: $380) says reinvestment in long-term growth is encouraging, but higher customer rewards and engagement costs (VCE) could create modest downside risk to 2027 earnings

** BofA Global Research ("buy," PO: $369) says card fee revenue picking up even as consumer spending growth is expected to slow, putting co in stronger position ahead of tougher 2027 billing comparisons

** RBC Capital Markets ("outperform," PT: $400) continues to view AXP as a high-quality holding with strong outlook for earnings and credit quality despite concerns over billing growth