American Express (NYSE:AXP) Shares Bought by Meitav Investment House Ltd.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. grew its position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 70.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,136 shares of the payment services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,211 shares during the quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in American Express were worth $8,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AXP. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in American Express during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Express during the third quarter worth about $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 332.0% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 108 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in American Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on AXP. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on American Express from $355.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of American Express from $266.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, HSBC lifted their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $296.38.

American Express Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of AXP opened at $309.90 on Thursday. American Express has a 1-year low of $209.10 and a 1-year high of $326.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $307.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $283.65. The stock has a market cap of $217.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.24.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a return on equity of 32.65% and a net margin of 15.36%. Equities analysts forecast that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.99%.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other news, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.17, for a total transaction of $3,027,327.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,308,795. The trade was a 41.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,664 shares of company stock worth $9,613,503 over the last ninety days. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.