American Express (NYSE:AXP) Price Target Increased to $263.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its target price raised by Royal Bank of Canada from $253.00 to $263.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the payment services company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on AXP. Stephens raised American Express from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and upped their target price for the stock from $148.00 to $193.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $188.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Express from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. HSBC upped their price target on shares of American Express from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on American Express from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $210.71.

American Express Stock Down 0.8 %

AXP opened at $230.64 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $224.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $193.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $165.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.00, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.20. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $140.91 and a fifty-two week high of $240.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.79 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 14.50%. American Express’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that American Express will post 12.99 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.06%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Monique Herena sold 11,242 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.41, for a total transaction of $2,342,945.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,891,480.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 203,891 shares of company stock valued at $44,373,196 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Express

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXP. Accurate Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 17.1% in the third quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,859 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in American Express by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 75,302 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $11,234,000 after acquiring an additional 4,507 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in American Express by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 140,954 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $21,029,000 after acquiring an additional 8,009 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in American Express by 1.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 614,383 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $91,660,000 after purchasing an additional 8,100 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 1.5% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 180,564 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $26,938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,721 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.