American Express Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 (NYSE:AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the payment services company on Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd.

American Express has raised its dividend by an average of 10.5% per year over the last three years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 18.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect American Express to earn $15.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.5%.

American Express Price Performance

NYSE:AXP opened at $296.79 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $292.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.68. American Express has a 52-week low of $177.81 and a 52-week high of $307.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $209.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (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 was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on AXP. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Barclays lifted their price target on American Express from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $263.68.

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.