American Express and Discover Hit 52-Week Highs Again

American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Discover (NYSE: DFS) reached new multiyear highs of $53.69 and $27.92 per share, respectively, Thursday morning.

American Express recently launched a free tool designed to help small businesses monitor social media and also said members could use reward points to buy Facebook ads. The New York-based company is known for its revolving credit cards and travelers checks, but also publishes magazines and operates travel agencies. American Express has a market cap of $64.5 billion.

The dividend yield is 1.3% and the return on equity is 26.5%. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 11.3%. The P/E ratio is less than the industry average. The stock has grown about 25% since the beginning of the year, outperforming the broader markets, but underperforming competitors MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V).

Discover earnings have grown in each of the past five quarters, easily topping consensus estimates each time; the beat was by 45% in the most recent quarter. The Riverwoods, Illinois-based company has a $15.0 billion market cap and it offers credit cards to 25 million members, as well as issuing student loans and operating an ATM network.

The company's P/E ratio of 9.1 is much less than the industry average, and the long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.0%. It has a PEG ratio of 0.9 and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The share price has risen more than 45% year to date. In that time, the stock has outperformed competitor American Express and the industry average, as well as the broader markets.

Action Items:

Bullish:Traders who feel optimistic about the financial sector might want to consider the following trades:

• SPDR Financial Sector ETF (NYSE: XLF)
• Vanguard Financials ETF (NYSE: VFH)
• iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Sector ETF (NYSE: IYF)

Bearish:Traders who feel pessimistic about the financial sector may want to consider these alternate positions:

• ProShares Ultrashort Financials ETF (NYSE: SKF)
• Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ)
• ProShares Short Financials (NYSE: SEF)

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