American Express (NYSE:AXP) CFO Caillec Christophe Le Sells 6,000 Shares

American Express (NYSE:AXP) CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the 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 represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AXP opened at $302.21 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $212.89 billion, a PE ratio of 22.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $280.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $255.61. American Express has a twelve month low of $165.93 and a twelve month high of $307.82.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.39 EPS for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.60%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. XML Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of American Express by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group raised its stake in American Express by 2,196.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 8,244 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,909,000 after buying an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in American Express by 41.3% in the second quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 701 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $162,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in American Express by 4.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 653,012 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $177,097,000 after acquiring an additional 28,371 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 2.1% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 501,226 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $135,832,000 after acquiring an additional 10,364 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC downgraded American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on shares of American Express from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Express currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $253.09.

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.