American Express (NYSE:AXP) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Monness Crespi & Hardt

Monness Crespi & Hardt cut shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

A number of other research firms have also commented on AXP. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of American Express from $250.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $335.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of American Express from $367.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Bank of America raised shares of American Express from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $325.00 to $274.00 in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, American Express has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $307.68.

American Express Stock Performance

AXP traded down $6.97 on Tuesday, reaching $308.38. The company had a trading volume of 5,514,612 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,857,630. American Express has a 1 year low of $220.43 and a 1 year high of $329.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.05 billion, a PE ratio of 21.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.25. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $303.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.05.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $17.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.31% and a return on equity of 32.48%. American Express's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.49 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Express will post 15.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. American Express's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Howard Grosfield sold 9,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.50, for a total transaction of $2,603,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 9,402 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,590,251. This represents a 50.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Glenda G. Mcneal sold 3,019 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.66, for a total value of $799,008.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 10,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,889,822.54. This represents a 21.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Express

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,843,893 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $12,334,299,000 after acquiring an additional 605,900 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,025,562 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $4,849,777,000 after acquiring an additional 2,168,445 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,752,084 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $3,484,312,000 after acquiring an additional 268,572 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in American Express by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,825,135 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $2,025,632,000 after purchasing an additional 955,811 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in American Express during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,785,867,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.