Arlington Trust Co LLC Boosts Stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 72.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,091 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Arlington Trust Co LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 105.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,000 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 19,400 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 8.8% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 22,983 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $6,233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,857 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in American Express by 330.7% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 4,522 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,226,000 after purchasing an additional 3,472 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in shares of American Express by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 8,864 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,404,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $217,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. HSBC upped their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Barclays lifted their target price on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com downgraded American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $296.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,308,795. This represents a 41.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 30,664 shares of company stock valued at $9,613,503 over the last ninety days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

American Express Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of AXP opened at $316.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.24. American Express has a 1 year low of $207.61 and a 1 year high of $326.27. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $306.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $280.03.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. As a group, equities analysts expect that American Express will post 15.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.99%.

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.