Douglas E. Buckminster Sells 13,111 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) Stock

American Express (NYSE:AXP) Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $272.69 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $192.10 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $266.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. American Express has a twelve month low of $148.33 and a twelve month high of $286.36.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.60%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXP. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Express by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,467 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Financial Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of American Express by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Legacy Financial Strategies LLC now owns 1,632 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $443,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its position in shares of American Express by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 422 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of American Express by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 10,384 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,404,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Godsey & Gibb Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Express by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 1,227 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $333,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. BTIG Research lowered shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of American Express from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $253.09.

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.