Investors Buy High Volume of American Express Call Options (NYSE:AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 42,434 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 204% compared to the average volume of 13,945 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AXP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Compass Point upped their target price on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on American Express from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $263.68.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AXP traded down $1.48 on Thursday, hitting $295.31. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 628,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,842,794. American Express has a 1 year low of $177.81 and a 1 year high of $307.82. 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 company has a market capitalization of $208.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $292.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $265.90.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.60%.

Insider Activity at American Express

In related news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXP. Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Express by 10.2% during the second quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 1,297 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. lifted its stake in American Express by 15.7% in the second quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 6,129 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,419,000 after purchasing an additional 832 shares during the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association boosted its position in American Express by 159.0% during the second quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 93,479 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $21,645,000 after buying an additional 57,392 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of American Express during the second quarter valued at about $6,845,000. Finally, Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Express in the second quarter worth about $222,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently 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.