American Express (NYSE:AXP) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $282.95 and last traded at $282.95, with a volume of 6929 shares. The stock had previously closed at $281.68.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on American Express from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Compass Point assumed coverage on American Express in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $260.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. BTIG Research downgraded American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on American Express from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $242.33.

American Express Stock Down 3.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $261.27 and a 200 day moving average of $243.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.21.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.26 by $0.23. American Express had a return on equity of 32.94% and a net margin of 15.53%. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Express will post 13.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is 23.06%.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of American Express by 8.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,447,441 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,923,399,000 after purchasing an additional 662,382 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of American Express by 8.2% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,595,370 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $590,940,000 after purchasing an additional 195,876 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of American Express by 22.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $485,525,000 after purchasing an additional 387,166 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of American Express during the first quarter worth approximately $433,709,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of American Express by 14.2% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,798,742 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $408,494,000 after purchasing an additional 224,079 shares during the period. 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.