American Express (NYSE:AXP) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.70

American Express (NYSE:AXP) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the payment services company on Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%.

American Express has increased its dividend by an average of 10.5% per year over the last three years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 18.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect American Express to earn $15.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.5%.

American Express Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE AXP traded down $2.05 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $300.29. 1,668,085 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,861,196. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $285.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $258.92. The company has a market capitalization of $211.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 12 month low of $170.15 and a 12 month high of $307.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that American Express will post 13.39 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on AXP. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. HSBC lowered shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $259.45.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total transaction of $21,049,740.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This trade represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last three months. 0.11% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.