Is American Express Stock a Millionaire Maker? Here’s the 2025 Reality Check

Wall Street's favorite question gets a crypto-era makeover: Can a legacy payment giant actually mint millionaires in the age of digital assets?

The Traditional Play vs Digital Disruption

American Express carries that blue-chip pedigree investors love—steady dividends, corporate clientele, and premium branding. But let's be real: traditional finance stocks move like glaciers compared to crypto's lightning strikes.

Numbers Don't Lie—But They Don't Scream Millionaire Either

Amex's growth trajectory looks downright conservative next to crypto's triple-digit rallies. While credit card networks process trillions, decentralized finance protocols are eating their lunch—slicing transaction fees and bypassing middlemen entirely.

The Verdict: Solid Wealth Builder, Not Lottery Ticket

Amex won't moon your portfolio overnight. It's the tortoise in a race where crypto hares occasionally explode—or collapse. Perfect for risk-averse investors who prefer steady gains over life-changing (or ruinous) volatility. Because sometimes becoming a millionaire requires actually sleeping at night instead of staring at charts.

American Express is a millionaire-making type of business

There's little question that American Express has a great business. As a payment processor, it connects sellers with buyers as transactions occur, charging a very small fee per transaction. But add up all the transactions, and American Express has a gargantuan business. In the second quarter of 2025, this finance company generated $17.9 billion in revenue, up 9% year over year, helping to drive a 17% increase in earnings.

Image source: Getty Images.

One of the Core strengths of American Express is its focus on wealthier customers. In the second quarter, its customers spent a record amount. That comes as the retail sector has seen increasing demand at low-price retailers, like(DLTR 0.50%) and(WMT -0.57%), while some higher-priced competitors have struggled, notably(TGT 0.64%).

Essentially, customers appear to be trading down because they are worried about their finances. But American Express' strong results suggest its wealthier customers aren't the least bit concerned. That makes complete sense, however, because wealthier customers tend to be more financially resilient than those with less wealth.

From a big-picture perspective, American Express is the kind of business that could help make you a millionaire. And the fact that Warren Buffett owns it in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, and has for years, is a huge vote of confidence. But don't rush out to buy American Express just yet.

American Express is a great company, but Wall Street knows it

Buffett was trained by famed value investor Benjamin Graham. One of Graham's CORE teachings is that even a great company can be a bad investment if you pay too much for it. This is why Buffett's investment approach is to buy good companies at attractive prices. He specifically isn't willing to buy good companies for any price Wall Street attaches to them. This is the problem with buying American Express today.

The stock's price-to-sales ratio is above its five-year average, as are the price-to-earnings ratio and the price-to-book-value ratio. The stock is trading near all-time highs. It WOULD be very difficult to describe American Express' valuation as attractive right now.

When you pay a premium to buy a stock, you have to believe that it will grow into that valuation. American Express could do that, but it seems unlikely that such growth will happen quickly enough to justify the current premium. In fact, if there is a recession, American Express will likely perform relatively well, but it will still feel the pinch from a broad pullback in buying. Wall Street will probably respond as you would expect, by selling the shares. So, the downside risk from the current lofty valuation is probably not worth taking for most investors.

Be patient with American Express

If you like American Express' business, you're not alone, noting the lofty valuation of the stock today. But don't rush out to buy it, as you risk overpaying for a great business, which will set you up for a bad investment, as Graham often explained. Instead, put this stock on your wish list, with the intention of buying it when others are selling, perhaps during a recessionary period. That way, you set yourself up as best you can to turn American Express into a millionaire maker.