American Express (NYSE:AXP) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

American Express (NYSE:AXP) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on AXP. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of American Express from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.09.

American Express Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE AXP traded up $4.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $305.37. The company had a trading volume of 3,476,229 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,903,494. American Express has a twelve month low of $163.32 and a twelve month high of $305.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.12 billion, a PE ratio of 22.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $276.97 and its 200-day moving average is $253.82.

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

Insider Activity

In other American Express news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,176,150.56. This trade represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.11% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. XML Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 119.6% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 39,497 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $8,993,000 after buying an additional 21,508 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 2,196.4% in the 2nd quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 8,244 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,909,000 after buying an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 41.3% in the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 701 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $162,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in American Express by 219.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 164,861 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $37,537,000 after acquiring an additional 113,249 shares in the last quarter. 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.