Truist Financial Begins Coverage on American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Investment analysts at Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $350.00 price target on the payment services company’s stock. Truist Financial’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 15.59% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. BTIG Research lowered shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $286.00 to $301.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $252.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $272.64.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP stock opened at $302.80 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. American Express has a 52 week low of $177.81 and a 52 week high of $307.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $295.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $268.42.

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 $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other American Express news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. The trade was a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXP. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Express by 26,783.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 909,737 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,467,210,000 after acquiring an additional 906,353 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in American Express by 8.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,984,208,000 after buying an additional 866,110 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in American Express by 924.2% during the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 851,431 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $197,149,000 after buying an additional 768,301 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in American Express by 59,816.0% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 682,443 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $185,079,000 after buying an additional 681,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in American Express by 71.9% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,164,098 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $269,547,000 after buying an additional 486,755 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.