American Express (NYSE:AXP) Price Target Raised to $275.00

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $265.00 to $275.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the payment services company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on AXP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com raised American Express from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on American Express from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on American Express from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on American Express from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $215.50.

American Express Price Performance

NYSE:AXP opened at $233.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $232.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $208.96. The company has a market cap of $167.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.22. American Express has a 52-week low of $140.91 and a 52-week high of $244.41.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.36. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.79 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 14.50%. American Express’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This is a boost from American Express’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.06%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, insider Jennifer Skyler sold 14,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.73, for a total transaction of $3,578,087.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,371 shares in the company, valued at $3,957,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Skyler sold 14,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.73, for a total transaction of $3,578,087.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 16,371 shares in the company, valued at $3,957,361.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 38,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.63, for a total transaction of $9,276,263.99. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 76,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,209,855.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 177,717 shares of company stock worth $41,680,999 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Express

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in American Express by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,447,441 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,923,399,000 after acquiring an additional 662,382 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in American Express by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,953,460 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,037,387,000 after acquiring an additional 41,443 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter worth about $1,112,747,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its holdings in American Express by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 4,855,211 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $909,575,000 after acquiring an additional 496,153 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in American Express by 21.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 667,695 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.