American Express (NYSE:AXP) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-four research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fifteen have given a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $295.05.

A number of equities analysts have commented on AXP shares. HSBC boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Michael J. Angelakis bought 3,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $269.89 per share, with a total value of $998,593.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $998,593. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Howard Grosfield sold 9,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.50, for a total transaction of $2,603,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,590,251. The trade was a 50.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Express

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in American Express by 1.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,843,893 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $12,334,299,000 after purchasing an additional 605,900 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of American Express by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,752,084 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $3,484,312,000 after acquiring an additional 268,572 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of American Express by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 8,761,336 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,600,277,000 after acquiring an additional 95,927 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of American Express by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,825,135 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,025,632,000 after acquiring an additional 955,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Express during the fourth quarter worth $1,785,867,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of American Express stock opened at $284.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $263.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.22. American Express has a twelve month low of $220.43 and a twelve month high of $326.28. The firm has a market cap of $199.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The payment services company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $16.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.04 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. This is an increase from American Express’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. American Express’s payout ratio is 22.91%.

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.