Did Buffett Successor Pick Wrong Credit Card Stock? American Express Stock Underperforms Visa, Mastercard

American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)/a> stock is down Friday after reporting quarterly financial results. The stock drop adds to year-to-date losses with shares now down 14.5% in 2026. While American Express stock has suffered in 2026, peer credit card companies Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA)/a> and Visa Inc (NYSE:V)/a> are outperforming the company.

• American Express stock is taking a hit today. What's behind AXP decline?

Berkshire Hathaway Places Credit Card Bets

Longtime Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK)/a>(NYSE:BRK)/a> CEO Warren Buffett stepped down from the role at the end of 2025, handing the reins to Greg Abel.

Abel wasted no time to make some of his investment ideas known with the conglomerate’s investment portfolio going from 42 holdings to 29 in the first quarter.

Among the stocks that got the boot were Visa and Mastercard, stocks among the top 15 holdings and owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2011.

Berkshire’s American Express position, which was 151,610,700 shares in the first quarter, stayed the same and was the second largest stock position for the conglomerate.

Fast forward seven months from the end of the first quarter and it appears Abel may have kept the wrong credit card stock.

American Express shares are up 5.4% since the end of the first quarter and down 14.5% year-to-date in 2026.

Compare that to Visa and Mastercard:

li>Visa: +36.2% from end of first quarter, +16.7% year-to-date/li> li>Mastercard: +25.6% from end of first quarter, +11% year-to-date/li>

This means that Berkshire Hathaway could have made substantially more on its stock positions if it had kept Visa and Mastercard over American Express./p> div class="bz-read-next-block" data-variant="card" data-news-mode="manual" >

strong> Read Also: a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/26/09/61868008/if-you-invested-1000-in-berkshire-hathaway-stock-when-warren-buffett-first-did-heres-how-much-youd-have-today" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> If You Invested $1,000 In Berkshire Hathaway Stock When Warren Buffett First Did, Here's How Much You'd Have Today/a> /strong> /p>

The Silver Lining

While picking American Express over Visa and Mastercard in the first quarter may be a miss for Abel, the previously held credit card stocks did quite well for Berkshire Hathaway over the years.

Benzinga previously calculated that the conglomerate made between 1,173.2% and 1,704.9% on the initial Visa shares bought in 2011 and made between 1,790.8% and 2,527.2% on the initial Mastercard shares bought in 2011.

Berkshire Hathaway and Abel won’t win on all their stock picks when judged on a seven-month time frame and may have misses from year to year.

The important thing for most shareholders is overall performance. Berkshire Hathaway shares hit all-time highs earlier this week, showing strength with Abel now in charge./p> div class="bz-read-next-block" data-variant="card" data-news-mode="manual" >

strong> Read Also: a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/26/08/61187305/bill-ackman-vs-buffett-successor-mastercard-visa-stock-battle-lines-drawn-who-wins" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Bill Ackman Vs. Buffett Successor: Mastercard, Visa Stock Battle Lines Drawn — Who Wins?/a> /strong> /p>

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