Ameriprise Financial: Strong Near-Term Execution but Emerging Spread-Income Headwinds Justify Hold Rating

William Blair analyst Jeff Schmitt has maintained their neutral stance on AMP stock, giving a Hold rating today.

Jeff Schmitt has given his Hold rating due to a combination of factors tied to both solid recent performance and emerging headwinds. Ameriprise delivered a notably strong quarter, with double-digit revenue growth and even faster expansion in adjusted earnings, helped by favorable markets, better wealth management flows and productivity, strong performance fees in asset management, and disciplined cost control alongside stepped-up share repurchases.

However, Schmitt underscores that a large portion of Ameriprise’s profits comes from spread income, which is likely to face pressure as the Federal Reserve moves toward a more accommodative stance. While higher client cash balances, a shift toward more fixed-rate assets, and lower crediting rates should partially cushion this impact, he still expects spread income to shrink in 2026, leading to a slowdown in EPS growth to the high single digits, driven primarily by buybacks rather than core fundamental acceleration. Given this decelerating earnings outlook and the fact that the shares trade at a valuation slightly above their historical average, he concludes that the current risk‑reward profile supports maintaining a Hold rather than moving to a more aggressive rating.

In another report released today, Piper Sandler also upgraded the stock to a Hold with a $530.00 price target.

Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 49 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders selling their shares of AMP in relation to earlier this year.