Traders Purchase Large Volume of American Express Call Options (NYSE:AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 42,434 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 204% compared to the typical volume of 13,945 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of American Express 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 directly owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This represents a 10.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in American Express during the third quarter worth $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in American Express during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 332.0% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the third quarter worth approximately $46,000. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AXP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on American Express from $252.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, 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 report on Monday, October 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.05.

American Express Trading Up 0.6 %

AXP stock opened at $298.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $177.81 and a fifty-two week high of $307.82. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $293.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $266.13.

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, 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.60%.

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.