July 19 Reuters Credit card giant American Express raised its fullyear profit forecast on Friday, as its wealthy customers persisted in splurging on travel, dining and entertainment.

The company also reported betterthanexpected secondquarter profit, underscoring the benefit it has enjoyed by focusing on a premium customer base.

AmEx39;s affluent cardholders have somewhat insulated it from weakness in the broader economy, even as rival lenders warn of tepid demand due to elevated borrowing costs.

Increased scale, combined with our premium, high credit quality customers, our wellcontrolled expense base and our successful investments… fuels the earnings power of the core business, CEO Stephen Squeri said in a statement.

The company sees its 2024 earnings per share between 13.30 and 13.80, versus the 12.65 to 13.15 range it had forecast earlier. In the second quarter ended June 30, profit was 3.02 billion, or 4.15 per share, 39 higher than a year ago.

Excluding a onetime gain from the sale of its fraud prevention technology unit, Accertify, the company earned 3.49 per share, higher than analysts39; estimate of 3.24 per share, according to LSEG data.

Revenue jumped 9 to a record 16.33 billion, but fell short of an LSEG estimate of 16.59 billion. Shares of the New Yorkbased company fell 2 in premarket trading.

Last month, the company agreed to buy restaurantbooking platform Tock from Squarespace to expand its foothold in the dining industry.

The acquisition could…