PDS Planning Inc Grows Stock Holdings in American Express Company $AXP

PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 4.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,358 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 141 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AXP. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 24.4% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,924,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 3.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,039 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 117.8% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 27,419 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $7,377,000 after purchasing an additional 181,049 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Express in the first quarter valued at about $687,000. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 4.9% in the first quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 3,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $854,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on AXP shares. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of American Express from $348.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. HSBC set a $295.00 price target on shares of American Express and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $327.00 price objective (up previously from $300.00) on shares of American Express in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $277.00 price objective on shares of American Express and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $323.60.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $316.27 on Friday. American Express Company has a one year low of $220.43 and a one year high of $349.19. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $322.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $300.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.61.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 32.87%. The company had revenue of $17.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.49 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that American Express Company will post 15.33 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 16,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.83, for a total value of $5,011,520.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,653,764.83. This represents a 65.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 112,272 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.86, for a total transaction of $37,034,041.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 92,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,614,306.60. This trade represents a 54.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 269,996 shares of company stock valued at $85,261,270. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.