Accel Wealth Management Acquires New Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Accel Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,438 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in American Express by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,320,053 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $5,281,753,000 after purchasing an additional 507,042 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in American Express by 118,198.3% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,732,068 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,028,913,000 after buying an additional 13,720,460 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of American Express by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 12,503,902 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,847,452,000 after purchasing an additional 35,760 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of American Express by 0.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,953,460 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,037,387,000 after purchasing an additional 41,443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of American Express in the fourth quarter worth $911,554,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AXP. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $188.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $208.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of American Express in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $235.00 price objective for the company. DZ Bank cut shares of American Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of American Express from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $191.84.

American Express Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of American Express stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Thursday, hitting $227.69. The stock had a trading volume of 2,272,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,159,846. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $211.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.65. The stock has a market cap of $164.82 billion, a PE ratio of 20.34, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. American Express has a 12 month low of $140.91 and a 12 month high of $231.69.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The payment services company reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.64 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 30.99% and a net margin of 13.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 12.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 84,420 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total value of $17,979,771.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,248,905.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 172,047 shares of company stock valued at $36,528,388. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.