American Express (NYSE:AXP) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

American Express (NYSE:AXP) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day 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 changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $300.36.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on AXP. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $252.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $278.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in American Express by 32.7% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 276,026 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $63,914,000 after purchasing an additional 68,033 shares during the last quarter. GDS Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of American Express by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 56,778 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $13,147,000 after buying an additional 4,249 shares in the last quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 52.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 8,504 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,969,000 after buying an additional 2,915 shares during the last quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 57.1% in the second quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 66,447 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $15,386,000 after acquiring an additional 24,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, L & S Advisors Inc increased its position in shares of American Express by 97.9% during the second quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 24,891 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $5,763,000 after acquiring an additional 12,315 shares during the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

American Express Stock Up 3.3 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $297.91 and a 200 day moving average of $270.60. 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 has a market capitalization of $218.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

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

About American Express

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.