Aviance Capital Partners LLC Purchases 153 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 1.1% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 14,590 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 153 shares during the quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $3,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AXP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 662,382 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in American Express by 22.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $485,525,000 after acquiring an additional 387,166 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 0.5% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,682,959 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $456,418,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,270,814 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $343,437,000 after purchasing an additional 27,859 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in American Express by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,220,422 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $282,589,000 after purchasing an additional 23,487 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on AXP shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on American Express from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, BTIG Research downgraded shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Four investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $253.09.

American Express Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE AXP opened at $285.54 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. American Express has a 52 week low of $161.73 and a 52 week high of $296.83. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $273.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.72. The company has a market cap of $201.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.21.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that American Express will post 13.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.60%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This represents a 10.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total transaction of $21,049,740.62. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

American Express 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.