American Express (NYSE:AXP) Shares Bought by LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI

LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI increased its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,344 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 2,557 shares during the period. American Express accounts for approximately 2.8% of LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI’s holdings in American Express were worth $25,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXP. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 430.6% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 3,867 shares during the last quarter. XML Financial LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group grew its holdings in American Express by 2,196.4% in the 2nd quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 8,244 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,909,000 after buying an additional 7,885 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in American Express by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,203,772 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $655,137,000 after buying an additional 247,864 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Express by 4.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 653,012 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $177,097,000 after acquiring an additional 28,371 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on AXP shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays lifted their price objective on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. BTIG Research cut American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Compass Point upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.64.

American Express Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of American Express stock traded down $7.28 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $295.57. The company had a trading volume of 1,201,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,976,045. The firm has a market cap of $208.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $296.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $268.66. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $177.81 and a fifty-two week high of $307.82.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.95%. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total value of $21,049,740.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,176,150.56. The trade was a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439 over the last 90 days. Company 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.