American Express (AXP) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 on August 9th

American Express (NYSE:AXP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the payment services company on Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. This is a boost from American Express’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10.

American Express has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 18.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect American Express to earn $14.82 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.9%.

American Express Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:AXP opened at $236.09 on Thursday. American Express has a one year low of $140.91 and a one year high of $240.55. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $225.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $196.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62. The stock has a market cap of $169.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.20.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.79 billion. American Express’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that American Express will post 12.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Express news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 117,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.44, for a total transaction of $27,267,303.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 110,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,642,315.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 117,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.44, for a total transaction of $27,267,303.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 110,318 shares in the company, valued at $25,642,315.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 316,691 shares of company stock valued at $70,856,898 over the last 90 days. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on American Express from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $221.00 price objective (up previously from $220.00) on shares of American Express in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.71.

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.