Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Buys 669 Shares of American Express Company $AXP

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC raised its stake in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,430 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 669 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $775,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in American Express by 24.4% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,924,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,538 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $414,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of American Express by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 22,582 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $6,076,000 after buying an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in shares of American Express by 1.3% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 11,550 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. bought a new stake in shares of American Express in the first quarter valued at about $476,000. 84.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AXP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $342.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $327.00 price target (up previously from $300.00) on shares of American Express in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. DZ Bank downgraded shares of American Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $311.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on American Express from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $319.95.

American Express Stock Down 0.1%

American Express stock opened at $330.10 on Monday. American Express Company has a 1-year low of $220.43 and a 1-year high of $349.19. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $320.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $298.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.29.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.87% and a net margin of 14.78%.The company had revenue of $17.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that American Express Company will post 15.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. American Express’s payout ratio is presently 23.02%.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other American Express news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 61,721 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total transaction of $18,360,145.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 9,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,677,527.47. The trade was a 87.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 23,505 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.37, for a total value of $7,671,326.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 123,613 shares in the company, valued at $40,343,574.81. This represents a 15.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 269,996 shares of company stock worth $85,261,270 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.20% 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.