American Express (AXP) Stock Buybacks: 49.6% of Shares Retired Since 2001

Name: American Express (AXP) shares outstanding since 1999, split adjusted
Creator: Buyback Radar
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Shares outstanding, 1999 to todaysplit adjusted, from SEC filings

1999, 1,328,212,8302026-07-14, 675,309,833

A share bought in 1999

2.0× more of American Express today, without buying another share. It was one of 1,328,212,830 shares then. It is one of 675,309,833 now.

Every filing we read27 fiscal years, split adjusted

Fiscal year	Date	Shares outstanding	Filing
1999	2000-03-01	1,328,212,830	10-K	cover page
2000	2001-03-06	1,333,238,520	10-K	cover page
2001	2002-03-25	1,340,949,337	10-K405	cover page
2002	2003-03-21	1,314,213,318	10-K	cover page
2003	2004-03-08	1,290,080,248	10-K	cover page
2004	2005-02-28	1,248,000,259	10-K	cover page
2005	2006-02-21	1,237,661,285	10-K	cover page
2006	2007-02-22	1,192,339,538	10-K	cover page
2007	2008-02-20	1,156,087,817	10-K	cover page
2008	2008-12-31	1,160,000,000	10-K
2009	2010-02-22	1,196,727,420	10-K
2010	2011-02-22	1,202,409,106	10-K
2011	2012-02-22	1,201,902,244	10-K
2012	2013-02-15	1,104,651,022	10-K
2013	2014-02-14	1,062,568,163	10-K
2014	2015-02-13	1,019,175,304	10-K
2015	2016-02-08	964,045,452	10-K
2016	2017-02-08	901,270,758	10-K
2017	2018-02-06	860,278,838	10-K
2018	2019-02-04	843,368,671	10-K
2019	2020-01-30	808,040,664	10-K
2020	2021-02-03	805,588,980	10-K
2021	2022-02-03	759,354,994	10-K
2022	2023-02-02	744,192,702	10-K
2023	2024-02-01	723,869,787	10-K
2024	2025-01-31	702,532,111	10-K
2025	2026-01-30	686,614,005	10-K

Source: all 10-K filings of American Express on EDGAR. Download this series as CSV. Licence CC BY 4.0, credit Buyback Radar.

American Express buybacks, answered

Is American Express buying back its stock?

Yes. American Express has 2.0% fewer shares outstanding than twelve months ago, 675,309,833 as of July 14, 2026. Over five years the share count is down 12.8%.

How many shares has American Express bought back?

Net of every new share it issued, American Express has 665.6 million fewer shares than at its 2001 peak. That is 49.6% of the company.

How many shares does American Express have outstanding?

675,309,833 shares, as of July 14, 2026, from the cover page of its latest 10-Q. At the 2001 peak it had 1,340,949,337.

What do American Express' buybacks mean for a shareholder?

Each share is a bigger slice of the company. Someone who held American Express stock in 2001 owns 2.0 times as much of the business today without buying another share. Whether that was a good use of cash depends on the price paid.

How does American Express compare with other cannibal stocks?

American Express ranks No. 62 of 251 companies on Buyback Radar by share of the company retired since its peak. Close to it on the list: Lear (50.9%), Target (50.2%), Lockheed Martin (49.4%), Herbalife (49.2%).

Every answer is computed from American Express' own SEC filings and rebuilt every Monday. Latest count: 10-Q on EDGAR.