American Express (AXP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 on February 10th

American Express (NYSE:AXP) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the payment services company on Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd.

American Express has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.5% annually over the last three years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 18.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect American Express to earn $15.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.5%.

American Express Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $302.19 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $286.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $259.66. American Express has a twelve month low of $175.60 and a twelve month high of $307.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The company has a market capitalization of $212.88 billion, a PE ratio of 22.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total value of $21,049,740.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,176,150.56. The trade was a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on shares of American Express from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $259.45.

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.