Wells Fargo & Company Boosts American Express (NYSE:AXP) Price Target to $340.00

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price target increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $300.00 to $340.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the payment services company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on AXP. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. HSBC lowered American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $265.00 to $270.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on American Express from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, American Express presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $268.95.

American Express Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE AXP opened at $303.08 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $293.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $266.13. American Express has a 12 month low of $177.81 and a 12 month high of $307.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market capitalization of $213.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total value of $21,049,740.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in American Express by 26,783.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 909,737 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,467,210,000 after purchasing an additional 906,353 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,984,208,000 after purchasing an additional 866,110 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 924.2% during the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 851,431 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $197,149,000 after buying an additional 768,301 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 59,816.0% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 682,443 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $185,079,000 after buying an additional 681,304 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in American Express by 71.9% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,164,098 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $269,547,000 after acquiring an additional 486,755 shares during the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.