Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Stock Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,317 shares of the payment services company’s stock after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Colonial River Investments LLC increased its position in shares of American Express by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC now owns 2,416 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $717,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $835,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its holdings in American Express by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 100,863 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $29,935,000 after purchasing an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Express in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 30.4% during the 4th quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

American Express Stock Down 2.8 %

AXP stock opened at $295.23 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $307.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.04. The stock has a market cap of $207.41 billion, a PE ratio of 21.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.24. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $212.48 and a fifty-two week high of $326.27.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.04. American Express had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 32.65%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of American Express from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group boosted their target price 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of American Express from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on American Express from $315.00 to $344.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, HSBC upped their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $296.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of 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 represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 13,500 shares in the company, valued at $4,308,795. This represents a 41.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,664 shares of company stock worth $9,613,503. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

American Express Company 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.