American Express (NYSE:AXP) Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster Sells 117,309 Shares

American Express (NYSE:AXP) Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 117,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.44, for a total value of $27,267,303.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 110,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,642,315.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

American Express Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of AXP traded up $3.56 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $234.33. The stock had a trading volume of 2,258,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,200,850. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The firm has a market cap of $168.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $224.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $194.88. American Express has a twelve month low of $140.91 and a twelve month high of $240.55.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.79 billion. American Express had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that American Express will post 12.99 EPS for the current year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.06%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in American Express during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in American Express during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Pacifica Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Express in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, April 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of American Express from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on American Express from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.71.

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.