Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Has $494,000 Stock Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,637 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 148 shares during the quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Boston Partners acquired a new position in American Express during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $210,540,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in American Express by 1,313.2% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 768,769 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,440,210,000 after acquiring an additional 714,370 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP acquired a new position in American Express during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $73,906,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its position in American Express by 636.7% during the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 442,307 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $65,988,000 after acquiring an additional 382,272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 417.3% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 415,696 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $77,876,000 after buying an additional 335,338 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AXP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on American Express from $188.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on American Express from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $221.00 price objective (up previously from $220.00) on shares of American Express in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, HSBC increased their price objective on American Express from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $208.24.

American Express Stock Up 0.8 %

AXP stock opened at $232.88 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $220.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $189.56. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $140.91 and a fifty-two week high of $235.37.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.79 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.39% and a net margin of 14.50%. American Express’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that American Express will post 12.92 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.06%.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Howard Grosfield sold 7,029 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.65, for a total value of $1,431,455.85. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,522,816.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 172,047 shares of company stock valued at $36,528,388. 0.11% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

American Express Company 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.