Monness Crespi & Hardt Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for American Express (NYSE:AXP) Stock

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its target price upped by Monness Crespi & Hardt from $300.00 to $330.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the payment services company's stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on AXP. HSBC lowered shares of American Express from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Express from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. BTIG Research lowered shares of American Express from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on American Express from $260.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $263.68.

American Express Stock Performance

NYSE AXP traded up $5.30 on Thursday, reaching $293.08. 3,540,113 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,860,637. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $288.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $261.07. The firm has a market cap of $206.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $177.81 and a fifty-two week high of $307.82.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. American Express's dividend payout ratio is currently 20.60%.

Insider Activity

In other American Express news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,952,286.84. The trade was a 48.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.11% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 430.6% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $1,292,000 after buying an additional 3,867 shares during the period. XML Financial LLC increased its stake in American Express by 9.8% during the third quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group boosted its stake in shares of American Express by 2,196.4% in the second quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 8,244 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $1,909,000 after purchasing an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 41.3% in the second quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 701 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in American Express by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 653,012 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $177,097,000 after buying an additional 28,371 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.