Resonant Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Resonant Capital Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,760 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 1,260 shares during the quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $3,140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Strategic Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 5,244 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $982,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 4,894 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $917,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,786 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,646,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,566 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,041,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Venture Visionary Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 23,211 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $4,349,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Laureen Seeger sold 84,420 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total value of $17,979,771.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 57,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,248,905.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 172,047 shares of company stock worth $36,528,388 in the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AXP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird cut American Express from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 8th. DZ Bank lowered American Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Morgan Stanley lowered American Express from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $212.00 to $222.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com lowered American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on American Express from $157.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $201.62.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AXP traded up $12.59 during trading on Friday, reaching $230.09. The stock had a trading volume of 5,599,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,105,577. American Express has a one year low of $140.91 and a one year high of $231.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market cap of $166.56 billion, a PE ratio of 20.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $219.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $187.79.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.01 by $0.32. American Express had a return on equity of 30.99% and a net margin of 13.84%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that American Express will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.17%. American Express’s payout ratio is currently 24.98%.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services.