American Express (NYSE:AXP) PT Raised to $252.00

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective hoisted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $248.00 to $252.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the payment services company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 7.46% from the stock’s previous close.

AXP has been the topic of several other research reports. BTIG Research cut shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $244.58.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP opened at $272.31 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $262.61 and a 200-day moving average of $244.73. The company has a market cap of $195.87 billion, a PE ratio of 22.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.21. American Express has a one year low of $140.91 and a one year high of $286.36.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.53% and a return on equity of 32.94%. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Express will post 13.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in American Express by 8.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,447,441 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,923,399,000 after purchasing an additional 662,382 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in American Express by 8.2% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,595,370 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $590,940,000 after purchasing an additional 195,876 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in American Express by 22.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $485,525,000 after purchasing an additional 387,166 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in American Express in the first quarter worth $433,709,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in American Express by 14.2% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,798,742 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $408,494,000 after purchasing an additional 224,079 shares during the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.