4,200 Shares in American Express (NYSE:AXP) Bought by InvesTrust

InvesTrust bought a new position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,200 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,249,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 403.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 40,492 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $9,370,000 after acquiring an additional 32,451 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Express during the second quarter valued at about $901,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 11.2% in the second quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,901 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,829,000 after buying an additional 793 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC grew its position in American Express by 6.1% during the second quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 6,502 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,505,000 after buying an additional 373 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC increased its stake in American Express by 221.6% during the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 15,575 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $3,638,000 after acquiring an additional 10,732 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

American Express Price Performance

AXP stock traded up $2.07 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $304.09. 724,011 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,873,244. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 52 week low of $177.81 and a 52 week high of $307.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $295.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $268.18.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In related news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total transaction of $21,049,740.62. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,176,150.56. The trade was a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439 in the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on American Express from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Compass Point increased their target price on American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.64.

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.