ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Has $51.90 Million Stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its stake in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP - Free Report) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 174,862 shares of the payment services company's stock after selling 2,572 shares during the period. American Express accounts for about 2.1% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in American Express were worth $51,897,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AXP. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Express by 430.6% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 3,867 shares during the period. XML Financial LLC increased its position in shares of American Express by 9.8% in the third quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $306,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI raised its stake in shares of American Express by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 86,344 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $25,626,000 after acquiring an additional 2,557 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group raised its stake in shares of American Express by 2,196.4% in the 2nd quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 8,244 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $1,909,000 after acquiring an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,203,772 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $655,137,000 after acquiring an additional 247,864 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AXP shares. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group increased their price target on American Express from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC downgraded American Express from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $265.00 to $270.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, BTIG Research downgraded shares of American Express from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Express presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $278.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In related news, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.11% of the company's stock.

American Express Stock Up 1.8 %

AXP traded up $5.51 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $318.07. 2,777,917 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,368,782. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $184.06 and a fifty-two week high of $319.70. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $299.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $272.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market cap of $224.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.30 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that American Express will post 13.4 EPS for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. American Express's payout ratio is 20.60%.

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.