American Express (NYSE:AXP) Price Target Raised to $263.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $253.00 to $263.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the payment services company’s stock.

AXP has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised American Express from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $245.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on American Express from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on American Express from $243.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $210.71.

American Express Trading Down 1.1 %

American Express stock opened at $231.46 on Wednesday. American Express has a 12 month low of $140.91 and a 12 month high of $240.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market cap of $166.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $223.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $193.49.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.36. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 14.50%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 12.99 EPS 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 issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 38,873 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.63, for a total value of $9,276,263.99. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 76,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,209,855.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 38,873 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.63, for a total transaction of $9,276,263.99. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 76,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,209,855.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Laureen Seeger sold 84,420 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total value of $17,979,771.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,248,905.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 203,891 shares of company stock valued at $44,373,196 in the last 90 days. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Express during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,112,747,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at $210,540,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in American Express by 62.1% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,399,494 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $449,521,000 after buying an additional 919,337 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in American Express by 1,313.2% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 768,769 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,440,210,000 after buying an additional 714,370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in American Express by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,839,276 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $713,202,000 after buying an additional 667,695 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

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.