Leo Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Leo Wealth LLC increased its stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 80.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,860 shares of the payment services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,609 shares during the period. Leo Wealth LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in American Express by 26,783.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 906,353 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 8.5% during the third 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 period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 59,816.0% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 682,443 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $185,079,000 after purchasing an additional 681,304 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 35,213.7% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 317,117 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $86,002,000 after purchasing an additional 316,219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in American Express by 73.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 707,381 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $191,842,000 after purchasing an additional 300,138 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AXP. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on American Express from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $296.38.

American Express Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE AXP opened at $320.18 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $305.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.01. American Express has a 52-week low of $205.60 and a 52-week high of $326.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $225.55 billion, a PE ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.24.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a return on equity of 32.65% and a net margin of 15.36%. On average, equities research analysts expect that American Express will post 15.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. American Express’s payout ratio is 19.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.17, for a total transaction of $3,027,327.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,308,795. This trade represents a 41.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,664 shares of company stock valued at $9,613,503. 0.11% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.