Eagle Asset Management Inc. Purchases 1,651 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 30.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,049 shares of the payment services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,651 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $2,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Express during the third quarter worth $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. raised its position in shares of American Express by 42.2% during the second quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 165 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in American Express in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in American Express during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 10.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AXP shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $253.09.

American Express Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $305.37 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $215.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.47, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50 day moving average is $276.97 and its 200 day moving average is $253.82. American Express has a 12-month low of $163.32 and a 12-month high of $305.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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 was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. American Express’s payout ratio is presently 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.