Gillian Tan, Columnist

Overextended at American Express

The litany of bad news puts the CEO under pressure, despite Buffett's continuing support.

January 22, 2016 at 8:17 PM UTC

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

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Wall Street is no longer giving Ken Chenault the benefit of the doubt.

Shares of American Express plunged as much as 13.6 percent Friday after the company Chenault helms posted a steep decline in profit and weaker-than-expected guidance for 2016. That means it's trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of roughly 10.3, a signficant discount to its historical average of 13, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.