Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC Sells 59 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC lowered its position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,247 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 59 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXP. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of American Express by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 55,443 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $17,269,000 after purchasing an additional 680 shares during the period. Proathlete Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in American Express by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Proathlete Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,374 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,299,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in American Express by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,584 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Nilsine Partners LLC lifted its stake in American Express by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 2,730 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $810,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,912 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $4,723,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. The trade was 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. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday. Compass Point cut their price target on American Express from $325.00 to $309.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. BTIG Research increased their price objective on American Express from $266.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Three 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.50.

American Express Stock Up 0.3 %

AXP stock opened at $317.24 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $302.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.72. American Express has a 1-year low of $199.07 and a 1-year high of $326.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.48 billion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

American Express Company 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.