American Expressvs.Mastercard
AXP vs MA · both in Payment rails & networks, part of the Banks, payments & capital markets value chain: The networks and processors that take a fee every time a card is swiped — the fee engine.
Mastercard is about 1.9× larger than American Express by market cap; American Express trades at the lower P/E (21.3 vs 29.9).
Side by side
| AXP | MA | |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $239B | $465B |
| Price | $356.24 | $534.02 |
| Today | +1.6% | +1.4% |
| Return YTD | −5.2% | −7.7% |
| Return 1Y | +7.8% | −6.5% |
| P/E | 21.3 | 29.9 |
| P/S | 3.0 | 13.7 |
| P/B | 7.0 | 69.3 |
Data as of 2026-07-13 · updates daily after U.S. close
The two companies
American ExpressAXP
A closed-loop network and card issuer in one — it earns fees from merchants and interest from its affluent cardholders, and owns the customer relationship end to end.
Full AXP profile →MastercardMA
The second global card network, a near-duopoly with Visa. Fee-based, capital-light and highly profitable, expanding into data and value-added services.
Full MA profile →More comparisons in Payment rails & networks
See where AXP and MA sit in the full Banks, payments & capital markets map — every segment from suppliers to end markets.Open the Finance value chain →