Top 5 Stock Picks of Mario Gabelli

4. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57

American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) provides payments and travel-related services. Latest filings show that GAMCO Investors is long on more than 934,333 shares in the firm worth $156 million, representing 1.38% of the portfolio. 

Reports indicate that American Express Business Travel, a subsidiary of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), is set to go public in a SPAC-sponsored merger that values the firm at more than $5.3 billion. 

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Washington-based firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) with 15.6 million shares worth more than $2.6 billion. 

In its Q2 2021 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“In financials, American Express has done an excellent job demonstrating the resiliency of its franchise in the midst of a global pandemic that drove a 60% decline in its core travel and entertainment business. The company’s spend-centric model has been helped by fiscal stimulus ensuring a flush consumer, while management continues to execute well by adding millions of new consumer and small and medium business accounts, which should benefit the franchise over the medium to long term. We remain optimistic regarding the company’s prospects as travel and entertainment activity rebounds, adding to our position in the quarter.”