Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Has $1.46 Million Holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,931 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 133 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,464,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Express in the third quarter valued at $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 332.0% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in American Express during the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in American Express during the 3rd quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on American Express from $252.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Hsbc Global Res cut American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on American Express from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $278.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Insiders sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439 in the last quarter. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

American Express Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $312.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $220.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a 12 month low of $177.81 and a 12 month high of $315.40. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $299.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $271.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

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.