Brown Financial Advisors Cuts Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Brown Financial Advisors reduced its stake in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 11.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,583 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 196 shares during the quarter. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in American Express were worth $470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,142 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $636,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Catalina Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Catalina Capital Group LLC now owns 3,356 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $996,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 4,007 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Auxier Asset Management grew its position in American Express by 0.5% in the third quarter. Auxier Asset Management now owns 7,133 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,934,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, Abel Hall LLC increased its stake in American Express by 3.6% during the third quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at American Express

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,308,795. This trade represents a 41.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,664 shares of company stock valued at $9,613,503 over the last three months. 0.11% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AXP shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. HSBC upped their target price on shares of American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Compass Point dropped their price target on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $309.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $301.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.38.

American Express Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE AXP opened at $295.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $307.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $285.47. The company has a market cap of $207.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.24. American Express has a 12-month low of $213.25 and a 12-month high of $326.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released 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 net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. Research analysts anticipate that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.99%.

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.