NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - American Express reported a fourth-quarter profit that more than doubled Monday as the financial services company continued to recover from the pummeling its credit card, money management and travel services business took in 2001.

Profits at the company's credit card unit set a record last year as consumer spending held up, even as businesses like American Express pared thousands of jobs.

Still, the company's CEO said he remains cautious about business conditions this year because of uncertainty in the economy and financial markets.

American Express said its fourth-quarter net profit rose to $683 million, or 52 cents a share, up 130 percent from $297 million, or 22 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 6 percent to $6.196 billion during the December quarter.

American Express, based in New York, was expected to earn 51 cents a share in the fourth quarter on $5.78 billion in revenue, according to First Call, which tracks analysts' forecasts.

"I'm pretty happy with the results," Jennifer Scutti, an analyst at CIBC World Markets, told Reuters. "We saw a little bit more top line growth and that was encouraging. What fueled it was just good card usage."

In a conference call, American Express executives continued to aim at long-range targets of 12 percent to 15 percent earnings per share growth and 8 percent revenue growth.

Shares of American Express (AXP: down $0.28 to $33.42, Research, Estimates), which fell as much as $1.15 before the Monday afternoon release of the profit report, ended down 28 cents to $33.42. For 2002, American Express stock was flat, outperforming the Standard & Poor's 500, which fell 23 percent.

The latest results are part of the company's rebound from 2001, when the travel business was hit by a slowing economy and the Sept. 11. terrorist attacks. The attack on New York briefly closed the company's headquarters.

American Express has cut 13,400 jobs, or 15 percent of its work force, since the start of 2001. The company, whose workforce now totals 75,400, took a $631 million charge in 2001 in part to pay for those layoffs.

For all of 2002, American Express said net income rose to $2.67 billion, up 103 percent, from $1.31 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 5 percent to $23.8 billion last year.

Net income at the company's travel unit, which includes the credit card division, rose 46 percent to a record $2.14 billion in 2002. The unit's fourth-quarter net income climbed to $550 million from $170 million in the year-ago quarter.

American Express's financial services unit, the company's biggest division, took in $632 million in net income last year, up 1,115 percent from $52 million a year earlier. But the $52 million figure includes a $107 million charge to pay for the job cuts and $11 million in one-time costs from the Sept. 11 attacks. It also included a $1 billion loss from writing down the value of certain high-yield bonds.

In the fourth quarter, net income at the financial services unit fell 6 percent to $153 million.

American Express's banking unit enjoyed net income of $80 million compared with a net loss of $13 million in 2001. For the fourth quarter, net income rose to $24 million from $9 million a year earlier.

"Despite weakness in the economy and financial markets, we delivered strong results for both the year and the fourth quarter," Kenneth I. Chenault, American Express's chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Looking ahead, Chenault said the company is starting "this year with the same cautious views that we held in 2002 and expect continued uncertainty in both the economy and financial markets."

American Express Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden made similar remarks during the conference call with investors and analysts.

"Clearly, we are still dealing with a weak economy and volatile equity markets," Crittenden said. "And the added uncertainty about the prospect of war in Iraq and other geopolitical events further clouds the view."  

-- Reuters contributed to this report