American Express (NYSE:AXP) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.82

American Express (NYSE:AXP) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 3rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of 0.82 per share by the payment services company on Friday, May 9th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.11%. This is an increase from American Express’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70.

American Express has increased its dividend payment by an average of 17.6% per year over the last three years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 16.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect American Express to earn $17.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.9%.

American Express Price Performance

AXP opened at $295.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $207.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.06, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $307.36 and a 200 day moving average of $287.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.58. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $214.51 and a fifty-two week high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. On average, research analysts expect that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $301.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $296.38.

Insider Activity at American Express

In other American Express news, insider Raymond Joabar sold 15,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.94, for a total transaction of $4,765,295.26. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 23,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,492,492.04. This trade represents a 38.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.17, for a total transaction of $3,027,327.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at $4,308,795. The trade was a 41.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.