American Express (NYSE:AXP) PT Raised to $255.00 at Evercore ISI

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price target raised by equities research analysts at Evercore ISI from $243.00 to $255.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “in-line” rating on the payment services company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 6.26% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of American Express from $221.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on American Express from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. DZ Bank downgraded American Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $190.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, American Express has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $209.52.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of AXP stock traded up $1.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $239.98. 1,946,043 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,163,342. American Express has a twelve month low of $140.91 and a twelve month high of $240.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.62. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $221.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $190.19. The firm has a market cap of $172.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.36. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 14.50%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. American Express’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that American Express will post 12.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was 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 directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Monique Herena sold 11,242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.41, for a total transaction of $2,342,945.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,891,480.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 172,047 shares of company stock valued at $36,528,388 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in American Express in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Pacifica Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Express in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.