William Blair Reiterates Outperform Rating for American Express (NYSE:AXP)

William Blair restated their outperform rating on shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) in a report published on Monday,RTT News reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on AXP. Compass Point upped their price target on American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.32.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $316.23 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $302.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $275.17. The stock has a market cap of $222.77 billion, a PE ratio of 23.27, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 52-week low of $199.07 and a 52-week high of $326.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63.

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

American Express Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXP. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in American Express by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,483,512 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $3,104,735,000 after purchasing an additional 86,100 shares during the period. 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 acquiring an additional 866,110 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,606,986 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,249,415,000 after acquiring an additional 239,173 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in American Express by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,960,842 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,074,168,000 after acquiring an additional 33,193 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in American Express by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,203,772 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $655,137,000 after purchasing an additional 247,864 shares during the last quarter. 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.