BSW Wealth Partners Has $1.14 Million Stock Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

BSW Wealth Partners increased its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,850 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 319 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners’ holdings in American Express were worth $1,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AXP. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in American Express in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in shares of American Express during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 332.0% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in American Express in the third quarter worth $46,000. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AXP. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Monday. Citigroup boosted their target price on American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of American Express from $266.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.50.

American Express Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of American Express stock opened at $317.24 on Wednesday. American Express has a 1 year low of $199.07 and a 1 year high of $326.27. The firm has a market cap of $223.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $302.97 and a 200 day moving average of $275.72. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is 20.60%.

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. 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.