American Express (NYSE:AXP) Upgraded at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

AXP has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on American Express from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on American Express from $355.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on American Express from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.24.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $266.04 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $301.59 and its 200 day moving average is $288.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.58. The company has a market capitalization of $186.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.21. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $214.51 and a fifty-two week high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities research analysts forecast that American Express will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.82 per share. This is a boost from American Express’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 13,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,308,795. This represents a 41.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Raymond Joabar sold 15,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.94, for a total value of $4,765,295.26. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 23,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,492,492.04. This trade represents a 38.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Express

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXP. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Express during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 332.0% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp VA ADV purchased a new stake in American Express in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in American Express in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in American Express in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

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.