CreativeOne Wealth LLC Trims Stock Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

CreativeOne Wealth LLC reduced its stake in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,990 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 103 shares during the quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $3,252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. XML Financial LLC increased its position in American Express by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in American Express by 119.6% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 39,497 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $8,993,000 after purchasing an additional 21,508 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group increased its position 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 valued at $1,909,000 after purchasing an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in American Express by 41.3% during the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 701 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 219.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 164,861 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $37,537,000 after buying an additional 113,249 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on AXP shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $253.09.

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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,724,067.18. This represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

American Express Price Performance

AXP opened at $304.28 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $278.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $254.61. American Express has a 52-week low of $163.61 and a 52-week high of $307.82.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. American Express’s payout ratio is currently 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.