American Express (NYSE:AXP) PT Raised to $255.00

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Evercore ISI from $243.00 to $255.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “in-line” rating on the payment services company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 7.55% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on AXP. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird cut shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $209.52.

American Express Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of AXP opened at $237.10 on Wednesday. American Express has a one year low of $140.91 and a one year high of $240.55. The company has a market cap of $170.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $222.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $190.85.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.36. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.79 billion. American Express had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The company’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that American Express will post 12.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Howard Grosfield sold 7,029 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.65, for a total transaction of $1,431,455.85. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,522,816.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 210,920 shares of company stock worth $45,804,652. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Express

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AXP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Express in the 4th quarter worth about $1,112,747,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter worth about $210,540,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in American Express by 62.1% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,399,494 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $449,521,000 after purchasing an additional 919,337 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in American Express by 1,313.2% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 768,769 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,440,210,000 after purchasing an additional 714,370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in American Express by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,839,276 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $713,202,000 after purchasing an additional 667,695 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

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.