American Express (NYSE:AXP) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on AXP. UBS Group raised their target price on American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Compass Point cut their price objective on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $309.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, HSBC upped their price target on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $294.95.

American Express Price Performance

AXP opened at $315.14 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $222.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $303.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $276.27. American Express has a twelve month low of $199.88 and a twelve month high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. Equities analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Express

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXP. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 430.6% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after acquiring an additional 3,867 shares in the last quarter. XML Financial LLC lifted its position in American Express by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its position in shares of American Express by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 86,344 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $25,626,000 after purchasing an additional 2,557 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in American Express by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,203,772 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $655,137,000 after acquiring an additional 247,864 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Founders Grove Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter valued at about $298,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.