Wealthstar Advisors LLC Makes New $309,000 Investment in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Wealthstar Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 1,041 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AXP. HSBC boosted their price objective on American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, American Express currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $296.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ravikumar Radhakrishnan sold 9,485 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This 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 three months. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

American Express Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $316.72 on Monday. American Express has a 12 month low of $207.61 and a 12 month high of $326.27. The firm has a market cap of $223.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $306.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $280.03.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The payment services company reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts forecast that American Express will post 15.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.99%.

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.