American Express (NYSE:AXP) Given New $305.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its target price increased by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $252.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the payment services company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 4.20% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on AXP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. BTIG Research cut American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on American Express from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Compass Point upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $263.68.

American Express Price Performance

American Express stock traded up $4.93 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $292.71. The company had a trading volume of 1,277,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,850,853. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $288.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $261.07. The company has a market capitalization of $206.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. American Express has a 1 year low of $177.81 and a 1 year high of $307.82.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. The company 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%. American Express’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’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 in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. 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 the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 96,998 shares of company stock valued at $26,423,439. Corporate insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 4.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 653,012 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $177,097,000 after purchasing an additional 28,371 shares during the period. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Express in the third quarter worth $242,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in American Express during the 3rd quarter valued at about $473,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in American Express in the third quarter worth approximately $5,699,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in American Express by 6.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 575,969 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $159,267,000 after buying an additional 35,211 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.33% 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.