Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Increases Position in American Express Company $AXP

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. increased its stake in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 4.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,189 shares of the payment services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $3,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AXP. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Express in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,454,667,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,025,562 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $4,849,777,000 after purchasing an additional 2,168,445 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 25.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,752,690 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,278,711,000 after purchasing an additional 965,221 shares in the last quarter. Provident Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 136.6% in the 2nd quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 1,108,971 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $353,740,000 after purchasing an additional 640,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 1.3% in the 1st 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

American Express Price Performance

American Express stock opened at $360.70 on Friday. American Express Company has a 12-month low of $220.43 and a 12-month high of $365.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $248.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $335.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $310.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.59.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The payment services company reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.98 by $0.16. American Express had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 33.41%. The company had revenue of $18.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. American Express has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.200-15.500 EPS. Equities analysts predict that American Express Company will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.01%.

Insider Activity at American Express

In other American Express news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 16,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.83, for a total transaction of $5,011,520.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 9,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,653,764.83. This trade represents a 65.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Douglas Tabish sold 2,515 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.61, for a total transaction of $894,359.15. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,515 shares in the company, valued at $894,359.15. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 222,011 shares of company stock worth $70,725,044 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AXP. Barclays increased their price target on shares of American Express from $336.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of American Express from $371.00 to $394.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of American Express from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of American Express from $277.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of American Express from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $332.65.

American Express Company Profile

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.