BLB&B Advisors LLC Has $3.83 Million Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

BLB&B Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP - Free Report) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,896 shares of the payment services company's stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC's holdings in American Express were worth $3,827,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AXP. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 906,353 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of American Express by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $2,984,208,000 after buying an additional 866,110 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 681,304 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in American Express by 35,213.7% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 317,117 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $86,002,000 after acquiring an additional 316,219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in American Express by 73.7% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 707,381 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $191,842,000 after purchasing an additional 300,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXP has been the topic of a number of research reports. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of American Express from $355.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of American Express from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. HSBC raised their price target on American Express from $270.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded American Express from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $296.38.

American Express Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:AXP traded down $0.65 on Tuesday, hitting $309.61. 1,855,225 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,518,882. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $306.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $280.80. American Express has a 52 week low of $207.61 and a 52 week high of $326.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $218.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.24.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last issued 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 return on equity of 32.65% and a net margin of 15.36%. As a group, analysts expect 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 was paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. American Express's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In related news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the 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 approximately $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,308,795. This trade represents a 41.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.