Monness Crespi & Hardt Issues Positive Forecast for American Express (NYSE:AXP) Stock Price

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective upped by Monness Crespi & Hardt from $330.00 to $355.00 in a research report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt currently has a buy rating on the payment services company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com upgraded American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of American Express in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $350.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.32.

American Express Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of AXP opened at $316.23 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The business has a fifty day moving average of $302.35 and a 200 day moving average of $275.17. The company has a market cap of $222.77 billion, a PE ratio of 23.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 52-week low of $199.07 and a 52-week high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in American Express by 105.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,000 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 19,400 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Express by 31.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 109,198 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $25,285,000 after purchasing an additional 25,937 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its position in American Express by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 1,129 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $261,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in American Express during the second quarter valued at $214,000. Finally, Ascent Group LLC grew its position in American Express by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 6,121 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

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.