LRI Investments LLC Sells 73 Shares of American Express Company $AXP

LRI Investments LLC lowered its stake in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 690 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 73 shares during the quarter. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $220,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Second Half Financial Partners LLC grew its position in American Express by 8.6% during the second quarter. Second Half Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,046 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its position in American Express by 1.5% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 30,814 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $9,829,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management boosted its position in American Express by 298.4% during the second quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 176,248 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $56,220,000 after purchasing an additional 132,009 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in American Express by 16.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 81,777 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $26,087,000 after purchasing an additional 11,629 shares during the period. Finally, Summa Corp. bought a new position in American Express during the second quarter worth about $258,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AXP has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. BTIG Research set a $277.00 target price on shares of American Express and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of American Express from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of American Express from $371.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $323.60.

American Express Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of AXP opened at $316.27 on Monday. American Express Company has a 12-month low of $220.43 and a 12-month high of $349.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $322.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $300.36.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.87% and a net margin of 14.78%.The firm had revenue of $17.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.49 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that American Express Company will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. American Express’s payout ratio is currently 23.02%.

Insider Activity at American Express

In other American Express news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 23,505 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $326.37, for a total transaction of $7,671,326.85. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 123,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,343,574.81. The trade was a 15.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Laureen Seeger sold 16,998 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.83, for a total value of $5,011,520.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 9,001 shares in the company, valued at $2,653,764.83. The trade was a 65.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 269,996 shares of company stock valued at $85,261,270. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

American Express 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.