American Express (NYSE:AXP) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday.

AXP has been the topic of several other reports. BTIG Research cut American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. HSBC downgraded American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $253.09.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of American Express stock opened at $300.53 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. American Express has a one year low of $167.18 and a one year high of $307.82. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $282.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $257.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 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 the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.39 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This represents 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 worth $26,423,439 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXP. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,483,512 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $3,104,735,000 after acquiring an additional 86,100 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,984,208,000 after purchasing an additional 866,110 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 5.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,606,986 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,249,415,000 after buying an additional 239,173 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in American Express by 0.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,960,842 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,074,168,000 after buying an additional 33,193 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in American Express by 0.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,682,959 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $456,418,000 after buying an additional 7,676 shares during 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.