American Express (NYSE:AXP) Position Increased by Principal Securities Inc.

Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 15,524 shares of the payment services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,753 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $4,607,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AXP. Creative Planning raised its stake in American Express by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 161,031 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $43,672,000 after acquiring an additional 7,328 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in American Express during the 3rd quarter valued at $387,000. Accurate Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in American Express by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,235 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $620,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in American Express by 46.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,897 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,142,000 after acquiring an additional 2,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in American Express by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 738,586 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $200,305,000 after acquiring an additional 64,012 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on American Express from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Three equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $296.38.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $311.37 on Monday. American Express has a 1-year low of $209.10 and a 1-year high of $326.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The company has a market capitalization of $218.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $306.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.25.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a return on equity of 32.65% and a net margin of 15.36%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that American Express will post 15.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. American Express’s payout ratio is 19.99%.

Insider Activity at American Express

In other American Express news, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.17, for a total value of $3,027,327.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,308,795. The trade was a 41.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Raymond Joabar sold 15,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.94, for a total value of $4,765,295.26. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 23,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,492,492.04. This represents a 38.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,664 shares of company stock valued at $9,613,503. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.