Procyon Advisors LLC Purchases 307 Shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,239 shares of the payment services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 307 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of American Express by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,566 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,041,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC raised its position in shares of American Express by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 1,818 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $317,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of American Express by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,713 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC raised its position in shares of American Express by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 4,044 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $603,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of American Express by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,279 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Monique Herena sold 11,242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.41, for a total transaction of $2,342,945.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,874 shares in the company, valued at $2,891,480.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 172,047 shares of company stock worth $36,528,388 in the last ninety days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $216.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $188.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of American Express from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $212.00 to $222.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $189.00.

American Express Price Performance

AXP traded down $0.92 on Thursday, reaching $226.83. 301,121 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,126,237. The stock has a market cap of $164.20 billion, a PE ratio of 20.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a twelve month low of $140.91 and a twelve month high of $231.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $210.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $180.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The payment services company reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.64 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16 billion. American Express had a net margin of 13.84% and a return on equity of 30.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.07 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 12.83 EPS for the current year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. American Express’s payout ratio is 21.41%.

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.