New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Cuts Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board decreased its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,763 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in American Express were worth $7,943,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AXP. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of American Express by 4.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 161,031 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $43,672,000 after purchasing an additional 7,328 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 39,080 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $10,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,666 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $994,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $215,000. Finally, Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $387,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AXP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $301.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Three 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.38.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $311.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $219.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $306.81 and its 200 day moving average is $281.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. American Express has a 52-week low of $209.10 and a 52-week high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Express will post 15.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.17, for a total transaction of $3,027,327.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at $4,308,795. This represents a 41.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,664 shares of company stock valued at $9,613,503. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.