Eagle Asset Management Inc. Has $2.03 Million Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 30.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,049 shares of the payment services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,651 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $2,027,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AXP. Boston Partners raised its holdings in American Express by 22.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $485,525,000 after buying an additional 387,166 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Express by 0.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,682,959 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $456,418,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares in the last quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in American Express by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,629,480 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $441,915,000 after acquiring an additional 54,958 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its stake in American Express by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,270,814 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $343,437,000 after purchasing an additional 27,859 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in American Express by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,220,422 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $282,589,000 after purchasing an additional 23,487 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AXP. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. BTIG Research cut 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 note on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $268.00 to $286.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.09.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of American Express stock opened at $305.37 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.21. American Express has a twelve month low of $163.32 and a twelve month high of $305.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $276.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.82.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Express news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total transaction of $21,049,740.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.11% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.