Pines Wealth Management LLC Invests $594,000 in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Pines Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 2,025 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $594,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,483,512 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $3,104,735,000 after buying an additional 86,100 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,984,208,000 after acquiring an additional 866,110 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in American Express by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,606,986 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,249,415,000 after acquiring an additional 239,173 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in American Express by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,960,842 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,074,168,000 after purchasing an additional 33,193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 247,864 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AXP. Compass Point raised their target price on American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on American Express from $252.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Hsbc Global Res cut American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $278.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 value of $1,820,880.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

American Express Stock Performance

NYSE:AXP opened at $300.23 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market capitalization of $211.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 1 year low of $177.81 and a 1 year high of $307.82. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $297.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $270.60.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released 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 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 company’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is 20.60%.

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.