American Express (NYSE:AXP) Price Target Raised to $307.00

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $301.00 to $307.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the payment services company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 3.12% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AXP. Compass Point upped their target price on American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. HSBC lowered American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upped 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. StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $278.09.

American Express Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP traded up $0.70 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $297.72. 542,501 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,017,275. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. American Express has a 12-month low of $177.81 and a 12-month high of $307.82. The firm has a market cap of $209.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $297.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $270.12.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. American Express’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total value of $21,049,740.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. The trade was a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in American Express by 26,783.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 909,737 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,467,210,000 after purchasing an additional 906,353 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of American Express by 8.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,984,208,000 after purchasing an additional 866,110 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its position in American Express by 924.2% in the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 851,431 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $197,149,000 after acquiring an additional 768,301 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in American Express by 59,816.0% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 682,443 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $185,079,000 after purchasing an additional 681,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in American Express by 71.9% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,164,098 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $269,547,000 after purchasing an additional 486,755 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About American Express

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.