Stephens analyst Vincent Caintic downgraded Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to Equal Weight with an unchanged price target of $288. The analyst cites valuation for the downgrade and does not expect the September monthly data to be an upside catalyst. Further, Caintic does not believe Alliance Data's credit performance will outperform other card lenders. The analyst this morning also upgraded American Express (AXP) to Overweight from Equal Weight. He's most cautious on shares of Synchrony Financial (SYF).

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Argus analyst Stephen Biggar raised the firm's price target on American Express to $246 from $220 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after the company reported Q1 earnings of $3.33 per share, up from $2.40 a year earlier and above the consensus of $2.98. The firm expects continued healthy spending volume from AmEx's generally affluent cardmembers, who are less impacted by inflation, and sees the company's marketing leading to good cardmember growth, the analyst tells investors.

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Check out this morning's top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.  HIGHER - Paramount (PARA)... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Reports Q1 revenue $15.8B, consensus $14.86B. "We have started 2024 off strong, with our first-quarter results reflecting the positive trends we have seen in our business the last several years," said Stephen Squeri, chairman and CEO. "Revenue increased 11 percent from a year earlier to $15.8 billion and EPS increased 39 percent to $3.33. Our continued investments in our value propositions, marketing, brand and technology capabilities have helped drive high levels of engagement with our premium customers. Overall Card Member spending grew 7 percent on an FX-adjusted basis, with spending by U.S. consumer Card Members up 8 percent from a year earlier and spending in our International Card Services segment increasing 13 percent on an FX-adjusted basis. We continue to attract high-spending, high credit-quality customers to the franchise, with new card acquisitions accelerating sequentially to 3.4 million in the quarter. Our fee-based products accounted for around 70 percent of the new account acquisitions we saw in the quarter, and we continue to see strong demand from Millennial and Gen Z consumers, who accounted for over 60 percent of new consumer account acquisitions globally. Our credit metrics remain best in class. Based on our results to date and the trends we are seeing in our business, we continue to expect full-year 2024 revenue growth of 9 percent to 11 percent and EPS of $12.65 to $13.15."