J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Purchases 2,572 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 35.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,806 shares of the payment services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,572 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 118,198.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,732,068 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,028,913,000 after acquiring an additional 13,720,460 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 4th quarter valued at about $911,554,000. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $210,540,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 162.6% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,961,999 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $289,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,731 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CI Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express in the 4th quarter valued at about $124,325,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AXP shares. Morgan Stanley cut American Express from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $212.00 to $222.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. HSBC lifted their price target on American Express from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com cut American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $221.00 price target (up previously from $220.00) on shares of American Express in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $201.62.

American Express Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of AXP stock opened at $231.04 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The stock has a market cap of $167.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $220.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $188.65. American Express has a 1 year low of $140.91 and a 1 year high of $231.69.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.36. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.79 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 30.99% and a net margin of 13.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that American Express will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s payout ratio is presently 24.98%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Monique Herena sold 11,242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.41, for a total value of $2,342,945.22. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,891,480.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 172,047 shares of company stock worth $36,528,388 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.