American Express’ (AXP) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at William Blair

William Blair reiterated their outperform rating on shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) in a report released on Friday morning, RTT News reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on AXP. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. DZ Bank lowered shares of American Express from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $221.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. HSBC boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $209.52.

American Express Trading Down 0.6 %

AXP stock opened at $235.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. American Express has a twelve month low of $140.91 and a twelve month high of $240.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $191.45.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.36. American Express had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that American Express will post 12.99 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 ninety days, insiders sold 210,920 shares of company stock valued at $45,804,652. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 0.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,953,460 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,037,387,000 after acquiring an additional 41,443 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of American Express during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,112,747,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 4,855,211 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $909,575,000 after acquiring an additional 496,153 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 667,695 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd increased its holdings in American Express by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd now owns 3,572,743 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $533,018,000 after buying an additional 67,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.