American Express (NYSE:AXP) Reaches New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

American Express (NYSE:AXP) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $301.00 to $307.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. American Express traded as high as $310.91 and last traded at $310.91, with a volume of 526799 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $300.36.

Several other research firms also recently commented on AXP. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of American Express in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $350.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Compass Point upped their target price on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Express presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $278.09.

Insider Activity

In related 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 value of $21,049,740.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This trade represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Express

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXP. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Express in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of American Express in the third quarter valued at $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 332.0% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of American Express in the third quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the third quarter valued at $46,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

American Express Stock Up 4.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $297.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $270.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.00, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.60%.

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.