Out Fox The $treet

Summary American Express reported Q115 earnings that easily surpassed analyst estimates. The company continues producing solid profits and returning capital to shareholders. The stock is expensive considering the lack of growth, but the situation is hardly dour. Despite troubling headwinds, the profits at American Express (NYSE: AXP ) continue flowing. The future of the premium credit card network doesn't appear nearly as dour as predicted by headlines following recent well-publicized customer defections. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The stock action in Green Dot Corporation ( GDOT ) isn't exactly matching the recent results of the company suggesting that investors are placing a large bet on the GoBank and check cashing initiatives. The actual results haven't improved much over last year, but the general perception has been they were better than expected after facing an onslaught of new competition in its market leading prepaid card segment. Green Dot is focused on providing affordable banking for the masses. Its primary product is a reloadable prepaid debit card that is available at more than 60,000 retail stores nationwide and online. It has several new initiatives including the recently launched GoBank, Project Outreach and another wave of retailers expanding the retail locations by another 20,000 stores. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Editors Choice Green Dot Corp.  (NYSE: GDOT ) , a leading independent prepaid card provider for the underbanked, announced yesterday the launch of the first mobile-focused bank. Will this turn around the prospects of a stock that has been crushed over the last year as fears of new entrants into the prepaid card sector have hurt expectations? GoBank is designed to be the first bank account focused on being used on a mobile device more » Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Before the market opened on Monday, American Express Company (AXP) announced the official rollout of the Bluebird card with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) . The Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) stock collapsed nearly 20% over the next two trading days to move back to all time lows. The company obtains 62% of revenues from a deal with Wal-Mart, so the market sees this as a potential major blow. The company provides widely distributed, low cost banking and payment solutions to a broad base of U.S. consumers. Green Dot's products and services include its market leading category of General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards and its industry-leading cash transfer network which are available directly to consumers online and through a network of approximately 60,000 retail stores nationwide where 95% of Americans shop. While this deal could be a threat to the revenue stream, one has to question whether American Express is the answer for the unbanked. What is the catch? How could a company ...

Just about every day, a company releases news regarding the mobile payments area. Unfortunately for investors with only access to the public markets, the news tends to be from a private company and more importantly, the focus is usually on Square. For investors, a few opportunities exist via PayPal, a division of eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Intuit (INTU) . See original article from April regarding the different investment options. PayPal appears to have the best plan, but do investors get enough exposure from an investment in eBay with a market cap of $64B? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Ameriprise Financial (AMP) has one of the juiciest yields in the markets these days, but most investors don't even know it. How could a company with a nearly $12B market cap have a large yield without the market realizing it? Maybe it goes back to Ameriprise Financial splitting from American Express (AXP) several years ago. Combine the split with the financial crisis and maybe most investors don't know or trust what appears to be a new name in the financial world. After all, American Express has much lower yields and forecasted growth rates, so investors appear to trust the old parent more. The other culprit is that investors remain completely focused on the dividend yield while ignoring the buyback yield or even more importantly, the earnings yield. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No position, but might initiate a position in AMP this week. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.